Voyagers Saga: Change of Soul
by Cydra
Summary: After a mishap that occured when looking through Morph's stuff, Draco, Chip, Contrinus, and Kala find themselves in new forms. A return to New York could hold the answer for their return to normal. As well as reuniting with old and new allies and enemies.
1. Panmorpha's Box

**Voyager Saga**

**Change of Soul**

**Chapter 1: Panmorpha's Box**

After Ghoulwyrm, Mantichrome, and Omnirus escaped with their minions, the NSC were on high alert for them. Particularly the crew whom the villainous trio would be most likely to seek revenge upon. Therefore, the Bladestorm's crew was busy making sure their security does not have any chinks.

The experiments in particular was suffering the most scrutiny, only cause what they might find non-lethal and, in some cases, edible (sometime the same case) were, to the rest of the ship, highly dangerous. Several of the experiments with Lilo were trying to get past the guards on the entry ramp to the BiNebular. "I'm sorry, Miss Pelakai. Captain's orders. WARDEN picked up Class 12 dangerous materials aboard and till we find it you can't use the portal. What if it's a stowaway infected from the NYC incident and it uses the ships portal somehow?" said the marine on guard.

"That sounds kinda farfetched if you ask me," said Lilo.

"I highly doubt there are any infected left from that incident," said Chip, "Let alone that would be on the BiNebular."

"You could let us on so we could find this thing," said Draco, "We experiments tend to be immune from what mutates most other organisms."

"But humans on Kauai may not be..." said the guard before relenting. "Fine, but no portal use till WARDEN says." A few of the experiments groaned and complained at this as that had mainly been the reason for coming to the ship.

"I was hoping that we'd be able to pop over to see how Jumba, Pleakley, and Nani were," muttered Lilo.

"Same here," said Contrinus, "It gets so cramped in a spaceship."

"Maybe if we find this hazardous whatever-it-is," said Stitch, "They'll let us go."

The guard couldn't actually believe this. The Bladestorm was easily 1 and a half miles long. His shock was probably why he was dumb enough to agree to Stitch's idea.

--

Draco, Chip and Contrinus headed for the ship's living quarters and were shocked and slightly horrified to see a group of hazmat suited marines at Morph's room. Kala could be just seen inside and Matt could be heard screaming as the bed's resident mold monster tried to see what he tasted like. Draco quickly shot several blasts at it from his four mouths that made the mold monster let go of Matt and retreat under the bed.

"Oh no, it took us 3 hours to coax it out," moaned Matt. He'd been wearing a plastic helmet, "Turns out it can't digest plastic."

Techo, who was in the room, said, "Turns out it used to be an egg and cress sandwich."

"Morph never did like cress," said Chip, "Those his disposing habits leave much to be desired. What are you guys doing in here, anyways?"

"The energy signature's coming from here. We think his magic kit's going critical, and do you want another Chupy aboard? One is enough." said Matt, peering into a drawer and pulling out a flag-of-all-nations chain

"You might want to be careful," said Chip, "Morph did like to collect unusual things."

Matt pulled out a small anti-matter warhead and glared. "I think we'll call the bomb squad to finish the search," he said annoyed.

"Hey, what's this?" asked Kala. She reached under Morph's mattress and pulled out a large metal box. It was a little grimy from being where it was. The mold monster squelched in an annoyed way as the box was removed.

Techo was first to look at it, "Oh boy, how in hell did Morph get in contact with the Khufans?"

"The Khufans? You mean like Ben's Benmummy form?" asked Draco.

"Yeah, you know that the Null Void's in Nullspace. They live there and they make the Combine look welcoming, most paranoid bunch I ever met," said Techo.

Matt said, "They designed the reality shield technology. Apparently they can cure advanced reality poisoning."

"Huh, you wouldn't have guessed it from their appearances," said Kala. "So how dangerous are we talking here?" asked Lilo as she put her hand on the lid.

Matt slammed his hand down. The box suddenly lit up and there was a flash. Matt was knocked across the room. "...DNA security, unless Morph added you, you get that," said Chloe as Techo checked Matt who's hair was crackling.

"Ok, I declare that this box is off limits until we find out what's in that box," said Matt.

"But how can we open the box if don't open it?" asked Stitch.

Matt glared at Stitch. "Lilo, can you and Stitch come with me? You four...DO. NOT. OPEN THAT BOX!" he yelled.

--

About 1.023 seconds after Matt n co, Lilo and Stitch had left, Chip was fiddling with the box's computer security.

"How long will it take for you to get that open?" asked Contrinus.

"Might take a while, it's pretty tough security," said Chip, "In fact, it could take several-"

Suddenly the box's computer beeped, "DNA match confirmed. Identity: Chip. Opening." With that, the lock clicked open.

"What is it?" said Kala, her own experiment curiosity making her lean over to look. A pile of what looked like glowing rubies could be seen. "Wow, Morph was rich," said Kala.

"Ooh boy," said Draco, "Can anyone say 'space casino'?"

"You might want to reconsider that," said Chip, "These aren't space rubies."

"Then what are they?" asked Contrinus.

Chip wasn't sure. His analysis system was just sending error messages. Some were saying it was rubies, some said Kryptonite, some said granite, and a few said the box was empty. He reached out and touched the first ruby and it started an apparent chain reaction. The rubies began to make a humming noise and crackle with energy. This did set off an error message from the ship, warning of a destabilizing isotope. With that the door to the room slid down, sealing them in.

--

Matt, Techo and some bomb disposal squad members were walking across the bay back towards the Binebular when WARDEN announced. "ALERT! REALITY ENERGY SPIKE DETECTED IN BAY 12!" Matt and Techo exchanged a glance and started running towards the ship. Matt almost made it when the side of the BiNebular exploded, throwing everyone in the bay to the floor and setting of a few small fires. Matt was knocked out for a couple minutes before he came to. He noticed that there was a lot of damage around him. Large holes have been blown through several sheets of metal and most things that were more frail had been completely incinerated. Matt stared for a couple stunned seconds before he called for the person he knew was responsible for this. "CHIIIIIIIIIP!!! If they survived...I'LL KILL EM!" yelled Matt and had to be tackled by Techo and two other marines.

--

Matt, Chloe, Lilo and Stitch were sat outside the medibay. Luckily the ship had recently got, in Matt's opinion, the best doctor in Nullspace. Dr. Willis, who Matt n co had met at Sy-Yong was a professional with genetic...lifeforms. The door hissed open and Dr Willis walked out, folding his wings in. It was worth noted that Dr. Willis was a splitter. "Ok, I have good and bad and really bad news." he said, looking up from his PDA.

"Ok, give it to me in ascending order," said Matt.

"The good news is that they're fine and healthy," said Dr. Willis.

"That's a relief," said Chloe.

"Now the bad news. The box contained unrefined Red Kryptonite which we all know is refined for use in reality shield technology...they received 12000 times the maximum safe exposure," said the doctor.

"Wait? What?" said Matt, "Red Kryptonite? I thought that stuff only affected Superman and any other organism that came from Krypton."

"It's not real Red Kryptonite. It was named after it as it is made the same way, only using time crystals. The reality radiation it gave out was thousands of times more powerful then the reality guns used on Kala and you, Mr. Lynch. This brings us to the last bit, would you all follow me please?" said Dr. Willis.

The four of them followed the splitter doctor out into the corridor. "Is this going to be really gruesome?" asked Matt, "I know you said they're alive and healthy, but they're not altered beyond recognition, right?"

"I will leave that to you. First, Mr. Draco and Miss Contrinus, in here please," he said leading the way to an isolation room. The group looked inside to see what looked like a pair of statues on the floor. They didn't seem to be of any importance at first, but then they noticed they were actually stone gargoyles, with familiar heads. "Yes, the rescue crew was surprised too. Mr. Chip is just in here," said Dr Willis, leading the way to a second room.

This one had two guards on it, holding EMP arc rifles. "I'm afraid if Mr. Chip has mental altering from his form, he will be an extreme danger," explained the doctor, opening the door.

The group looked around but all they could find was a hovercraft similar to a Covenant Ghost. "I don't get it, where is he?" said Chloe.

"Right there," said Dr Willis, 'Motoralis sapian...also known as Cybertronian." Matt and Chloe tensed up at that.

Dr Willis sighed and walked towards the last room. "I'm afraid Miss Kala has some mental trauma. She was...surprised when she woke up. I think just Mr. Lynch for now," said Dr Willis.

Matt glanced at Chloe and she said, "It's ok, I don't mind."

Matt went into the room and said, "Kala, are you o- DAH?!?" The last part was a reaction to Kala's new body. She was now a human woman of the same age as Matt with scarlet hair and green eyes and, to Matt's opinion, one of the most beautiful women he's ever met.

Matt walked up to her slowly. "Kala?" he said softly. Kala jumped as he gently put his hand on her shoulder and she flinched away. "Whoa, it's me. It's Matt," he said and when that didn't work he tried. "It's master."

Kala blinked and looked at Matt. "Matt?" she said.

"Take it easy, you don't want to put any stress on that new body of yours," said Matt.

"What happened? Is this a dream?" she said in a shakily confident tone.

"Afraid not," said Matt grimly.

"Do I- Do I look ok to you?" asked Kala.

"Well, er, actually, you look better than ok," said Matt, feeling his cheeks redden a bit. Kala smirked a bit and Matt brightened up. "Plus, for once, you woke up before Chip," he said jokingly.

"How is Chip? And Draco and Contrinus?" asked Kala.

"Well, Draco and Contrinus seem to have become gargoyles and are in stone sleep at the moment," said Matt, "and Chip's apparently become a Cybertronian hovercraft and is in stasis lock or something."

Kala looked at herself. "Looks like I'm the least worst off," she said.

Matt chuckled and said, "Yep, so it would seem." The two of them laughed for a bit until Kala stopped and sneezed. A fireball came out of her mouth as it happened. The fireball hit Matt dead center in the face. "Ok...maybe not human," he coughed.

"Well, close enough," said Kala. She paused and muttered to herself again, "Close enough."

"Don't worry, I bet Dr Willis has a cure in the works already and if not, the Khufans can damn well fix their mess," said Matt

--

Dr Willis however was not so optimistic. "I'm afraid without the Khufan government's help, your friends had better get used to these new forms," he said

"You can't really expect them to stay like this," said Matt, "Gargoyles can only operate at night. You know the history the NSC has with the Cybertronians. Plus, Kala's needed to treat EXP victims."

"The NSC has been cloning her blood for months so we cannot expect them to pull strings on our behalf I'm afraid. I was hired for the project in question," said Dr Willis.

Wilson came in, looking grim. "Just got this for our request to the Khufan ambassador...answer's no," he said

Matt, Chloe, Lilo, and Stitch just stared for a couple seconds before there was a loud simultaneous "WHAT?!?"

"They said and I quote 'Consider the subjects' situation's a product of their own stupidity and they will not spend valuable credits fixing something they could have avoided' unquote," said Wilson coldly before throwing the message PDA at the wall angrily.

"So they say that it's our fault they got transformed?" said Chloe, "That's ridiculous. It was Morph who was hoarding Red Kryptonite in his room."

"Why did he have it, anyways?" asked Lilo.

"Apparently he brought it legally off them as a curiosity. The box was never meant to be opened," said Wilson.

Matt said. "Wait, then technically we brought it so we can demand the equipment."

Wilson shook his head. "Only Morph can request it."

"Well that's just dandy," said Chris, "Just when we need him the most, he's lost somewhere in some other universe." Chris stopped as everyone glared at him. "Sorry," he muttered, realizing he'd stepped over the line

"Well, I suppose we can learn to work around this," said Techo, "Let's just hope that they'll take this with calmly and rationally."

--

To put it simply...they didn't. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY WON'T CURE US?" yelled Draco, eyes glowing white.

"Hey, don't blame us," said Matt. Matt couldn't help but feel a little intimidated by Draco now. Draco had the basic gargoyle body shape, only he retained his old form's head and coloration. He was had a noticeable amount of streamlined muscles. Fortunately, he'd been given clothing to cover himself up, an attire somewhat reminiscent of Brooklyn's only mainly emerald in color "Look, what do you expect us to do? Declare a one ship war on the Khufans?" he said.

"Draco, dear, they really are trying to do the best they can," said Contrinus. Her gargoyle form was slimmer and noticeably well proportioned. Her wings were like the ones on her old form and she was finding advantages of having separate arms. Like Draco, she was now wearing clothes, a simple bikini top and loincloth-like combo that were red. "We just need to take this calmly."

"Calmly? That's easy for you to say!" shouted Chip, "At least you still have limbs, I can't even move!"

"Can we all just stop arguing? If Morph ever turns up he will be able to get the stuff you need, till then you have to live with yourselves," said Matt, yelling a bit to be heard.

"Easy for you to say," said Chip, "You can still sleep in your beds. I have to rest in a parking space!"

"For heaven's sake..." muttered Matt as the three started arguing again.

"This going to be a long day," said Chloe as she rubbed her temples.

Kala spoke up. "Look. At least that blast didn't kill you. You're all still breathing...technically," she said, looking at Chip at the last part and adding, "...and I read up on Cybertronians last night. Why don't you just transform, Chip?" she said.

"You think I haven't been trying?" said Chip, "I've been charging different pieces of circuitry, defragmentizing my hard drive, polarized my spark chamber, I've tried everything!"

Matt thought for a second then said, "What about that funny noise they make?" he suggested and noticed the stares. "What? It's worth a try," he said defensively

"Oh please," said Chip, "as if I'll just transform by going choo-chuh-chah-chik-WHOA!" Suddenly the casing on the top split in half and swung around to form wings. Then the front portion of the body underneath flipped forward while his bumper/wings and the front part of the underside split and unfolded to form legs. Two of his arms were at his sides while the other four came from the back of his underside. His head was already at the top of his vehicle mode and simple swiveled to be in a more normal position. Now Chip basically resembled a 10-foot version of himself with thicker arms, shields on four of them, and wings on his back.

Matt whistled. "Impressive, Chip, very impressive," he said.

Chip looked down and said, "Yes, this is pretty cool. Now I'm the tallest one in the group."

Matt nodded. "There is that, but by Cybertronian standards, you're a midget," he said.

"We probably don't want to go into details about this when we tell what happened to the higher-ups," said Wilson, "I don't think they'd feel comfortable with a Transformer in their midst, even a friendly one."

"Yeah, we could fall back on the usual plan," said Chloe.

Matt said, "Oh, lie out our front teeth."

"Huh, I wonder if I got any new powers," said Chip.

"Probably lots of guns," said Matt simply.

--

The next week or so were not very enjoyable for Matt. The gang was trying their best to get used to things but the crowning point was when Chip finally did find his robot forms guns and blew up 3 Starfury fighters in the docking bay before he could get control.

Kala however seemed to be adjusting pretty well by comparison. However, something weird arrived one day. The courier had delivered a package for Kala and so naturally everyone presumed that the Empire had sent a nice explosive present for her.

"What do you think is in it?" asked Chloe.

"What I'd really like it to be is something to reverse Red Kryptonite transformation," said Matt. Matt had finally agreed to open it. The weird part that had struck him was that it was covered in Atlantean runes. The box opened easily enough and nestling in a felt cover was..."It's an ion blade," said Matt, picking it up.

"An ion blade?" said Chloe, "Are you sure it's addressed to Kala?"

Matt nodded, checking the destination address. "Miss Kala 777. Right here," he said before offering the handle to Kala.

Kala took the device and runes along its length lit up before an orange energy beam shot out, nearly skewering Matt who only just jumped out the way. "Ok..." said Matt weakly, looking at where the blade had shot INTO the wall, "I think you may need a few...pointers."

"I think so too," said Kala.

Chloe headed for the door and said, "I'll let you two lovebirds figure that thing out."

Chloe ducked round the corner cackling as Matt tossed a low level plasma blast at where she'd been. "I suppose we can use Bay 15 for practice," he said after a bit, leading the way.

--

As soon as they were there, Matt said to Kala, "Now, the first thing you need to know is how to hold it. Like this." He took out his own ion blade and turned it on. Kala nodded and tried to do the same. "No, no," said Matt, "you're holding it wrong." He put his arms around and put her arms in the right position, "Like this."

Kala smiled a bit at this and Matt blushed. "Erm...that should do it…hey, where's the setting ring on this thing?" he said, looking at the blade. His own blade had a rotating ring that controlled the power of the blade, allowing non-lethal settings. This one however had no such ring.

"I don't know," said Kala, "Did it fall out of the box?"

"No, it's attached. This thing's designed just to kill, nasty little thing," said Matt, looking at it. Now he came to think, the runes on Kala's blade looked different from his, colder...more cruel.

"You think we can get one and attach it to it?" asked Kala, "I'd hate to accidentally hurt someone."

"No way, these things are relics. Chloe found hers on an archeological mission while I was on the Maelstrom star and I got mine from Dante senior, they're thousands of years old," said Matt, shaking his head before saying. "Just means you'll have to practice more," he said.

"Then how comes this one looks practically brand new?" asked Kala.

Matt shrugged, "Maybe this one wasn't used that much."

Matt however was worried about who would have already found out about the incident when the NSC had only found out a few days ago...and even then how had they gotten a courier drone out?

--

Matt yawned and turned over before the computer beeped again. "Incoming communication." it chimed.

"Identity of caller?" yawned Matt.

"David Xanatos," replied the computer.

"What?" said Matt, now awake fully at that news. "Impossible, DARKRIFT got rid of all the stuff at WARDEN's old base, .put him on," he said, sighing the last part and putting on his NASA hat to try and look official.

Xanatos's face appeared on the screen. "Matt, is that you? You look good. I didn't call at a bad time, did I?"

"Perhaps," said Matt, "How in Nullspace did you manage to contact us?"

Xanatos smiled that smug smile of his. "Your friends didn't do a good job clearing away. We found alot of intact equipment and I managed to put together a special satellite," he said.

Matt sighed. "Ok, but I have a feeling this isn't for social purposes, it never is. Why are you calling? I've got enough on my plate with exploding reality power sources and Chip blowing up the fighters," said Matt

"Believe or not, this about Brooklyn," said Xanatos, "You know how he's been to the future, right?"

Matt thought about this "Yeah, vaguely. I was a bit suspicious of that. Temporal radiation doesn't cause amnesia," he said.

"I wondered about that myself," said Xanatos, "Anyways, he said he had a message he was supposed to deliver on this date. He said he wants you to go to this address, grab what looks of most significance, and come here."

"Anything else? I've got to teach Kala how to handle her dragon form tomorrow," said Matt as the co-ordinates arrived at his terminal. It was for an address in New York.

"Well, yes, apparently there's a warehouse he wants you to go to and there's a similar item there. Only the problem is that it's not on Earth."

"Oh great, where is it then? Mars?" said Matt, yawning again.

"I can't really say," said Xanatos, "It supposed be a constantly warp-jumping orbital facility or something. But Brooklyn says you'll be able to get to it if you go this place at this time."

"Ok," said Matt, getting up to get the ship heading there.

--

Xiphos facility was the empires key bio-storage facility, used to store the prototype EXP weapons and failed experiments of the empire. It had a large jump engine that it used to warp between universes periodically so that raiders or the NSC couldn't locate it. Being stationed there was usually a punishment. The two empire troopers on watch aboard were both thinking this. "So, how did you land this gig?" said one of them in a bored tone, watching the surface of Earth rotating below the station.

"Eh, I accidentally spilled hot coffee on Splicer," said the other guard, "That guy freaks when anything hot touches him. How about you?"

"I commented that the emperor was a furry little nutcase with a Napoleon complex," said the first guard.

The other smirked. "Yeah...that'll do it."

Suddenly the radar bleeped something. "Incoming spacecraft," said one.

"That's odd," said the other, "We weren't expecting anyone today."

The first guard paled as the radar displayed the ship's I.D. "Oh hell, it's the traveler," he whimpered.

"Stay calm," said the second guard, "Maybe he's just passing by." Suddenly a small craft exited the ship and headed towards them.

"Or not. I gotta idea, let's get in that shuttle and run away," said the first guard.

The second guard was about to object when he remembered that Xiphos had no droid security, relying on its jump engine to avoid trouble. "I like that plan," he said and the guards legged it.

The two ran to the incoming ship, which turned out to be a Ghost and climbed onto the back seat. "Where's the pilot?" asked the first one.

"Maybe it's on auto-pilot," said the second.

"That's one way to put it," said a voice that seemed to come from the Ghost.

"Oh no..." said the first guard weakly, being quicker on the uptake then the other guard. "Erm, what would happen if for example, we surrendered unconditionally?" he asked

"Then you'll be tied up and left alone," said the 'Ghost', "Now please get off of me before I decide to test my vehicle mode guns."

The guards looked at each other, unclipped their blasters and threw them as far as they could before running into the security room and locking themselves in.

--

Wilson was trying to get the guards out. "For the last time, we are not going to shoot you," he said under the door. "That was actually surprisingly uneventful," said Chip, now in robot mode, "Guess the Empire's running low on backboned soldiers."

The others were looking around the facility. Chloe and Kala were searching together. Chloe said, "This place was a dumping ground for screw ups. I have to say when I was in charge and chasing Matt, it ended up with a very large crew. Anton must be doing well."

The two of them happened to be looking through the weapons section. There were plenty of odd-looking guns there. One in particular caught Kala's eye. It somewhat resembled a gold bazooka, only its end looked more like that of a telescope. Chloe spotted it too. "A P.O.V. gun, I thought they stopped making these," she said, looking at it.

"What's it do?" asked Kala as she picked it up. Matt and Chris just happened to walk into the room and Kala accidentally pulled the trigger. A small pulse of blue light came out of the barrel and hit Matt.

Matt flinched and said, "You know, I suddenly realize how much goes on Kala's mind. I mean, switching species is one thing, but switching it to someone you're really good friends with something else." He blinked his eyes and shook his head in confusion.

Chloe smirked and tried to take the gun off Kala. "Give me a go. Let's see what happens with Chris," she said smirking evilly.

"Uh, that won't be necessary," said Chris backing up, "I'm pretty sure we'd know what would happen-WHOA!" Chris tripped backwards over a crate.

The crate fell over and a cylinder emblazoned with a bio-hazard symbol fell out. Matt picked it up. "What the hell's this?" he muttered

"I don't know," said Chloe as she took it, "Let me see if there's a label."

The label simply said '-630 prototype...remains...destruction postponed.' Chloe looked at it sadly. "Guess NegaMorph got into trouble for helping you recapture me," she said to Matt.

Matt grimaced and said, "Leave it. Or better yet, toss it in the trash."

Chloe glared at Matt. "No," she said simply.

Matt looked at it. "What you wanna do then? Resurrect him? If you've forgotten, he wanted to kill us all."

"Not entirely," said Chloe, "You forget, I know NegaMorph better than anyone. He doesn't outright go for the kill. Besides, he'd be useful if he were on our side."

"No, actually, HELL NO! I refuse to have that murdering blob on my ship," said Matt angrily.

"I say we should this democratically," said Kala as she picked up what looked like a stick of dynamite and put it in her pocket, "We should vote on whether we should resurrect him or not."

"Oh, very well," said Matt, "But for the record, my answer's automatically 'no'."

The others gathered together to deliberate the notion of reviving NegaMorph. Techo started. "Nega's a nutter who I bet will want to skin us the minute he can move. I vote no."

"Logically, he would serve as an extremely significant ally if he were revived on our side," said Chip, "I vote yes."

Kala said, "That's one each. I vote yes. I had a good look inside his soul and I think he could be talked over to our side."

"He beat me up because I wore the same outfit as him," said Draco, "I vote no."

"Uh, Draco, that didn't actually happen that way," said Contrinus, "That was how we told it. Anyways, I'd hate to leave him in a state like that, I vote yes."

"Oh yeah, it was so graphic though," said Draco, "I switch my vote to yes."

Matt sighed. "The yes's have it, but as captain I vote once he's resurrected, we hand him over to the council to face the music," he said.

* * *

There's the first chapter of a new story. As you can see, we're already having some freaky things happening. What with Draco and Contrinus becoming gargoyle versions of themselves and what not. By the way, I intended Chip's transformation to robot mode to be similar to Scourge from the original Generation 1 cartoon. And there's also the matter of Kala receiving that mysterious gift. And it looks like NegaMorph's going to have a comeback? Or will he? Find out in the next chapter. Please review.


	2. Plasma Reunion

**Voyager Saga**

**Change of Soul**

**Chapter 2: Plasma Reunion**

As the Bladestorm made the jump between their universe and the Gargoyles universe, the crew wondered what it was that Brooklyn wanted them to collect.

"It could be anything. The main problem is what have the clan found that needs us?" said Chloe.

Techo said, "Maybe Matt left a grenade behind? Remember what happened at Tau Ceti, Wilson?"

"I really wish I didn't," said Wilson, "but I don't think it'd be anything of that big a magnitude."

"Well, it must be big. The clan kept Draconus in check so I doubt there's much that slows em down," said Matt

"You think we'll be in there to talk with them or will we have to wait till sunset?" asked Techo.

"WARDEN says he can warp us in at dusk so there'll be no trouble there. What's weird is the readings he getting, magi's off the scale so we'll be going in with weaponry, just in case," said Matt.

--

**Eyrie Building, New York City**

The Pelican hovered slowly down towards the courtyard of Wyvern Castle, followed by Chip in his hovercraft mode. "You know, it's odd," said Chip, "I never felt comfortable with the view from up here. But now it doesn't bother me at all."

Matt however was standing at the open rear hatch with Kala. "Come on, you've got to get the hang of it some time and they say the best way to teach a guy to swim is to push em in the river," he said.

Chloe was also there and she said, "I think it was a metaphor, I mean, this idea is stupid even by your standards."

"Don't worry, we've got plenty of fliers at hand to catch you if something goes wrong," said Matt, "You ready?"

"I don't know," said Kala, "I'm starting to have some second thoughts..." Matt took this as his cue to push Kala out.

He then jumped out after her. Chloe rolled her eyes and jumped out after them. Kala however appeared to be having trouble. Matt had transformed and was gliding alongside her. "C'mon, it's easy."

Kala closed her eyes in concentration and suddenly her body was covered in flames. They quickly vanished to reveal what essentially looked like a red version of Chloe's dragon form with green eyes. She managed to open her wings up in time to get an updraft.

--

Margot was on the balcony of her apartment, drinking a glass of wine. "This city has really gone to the dogs," she said, "As if the constant cold wasn't enough, those wretched gargoyles keep creating messes. What else could go wrong?" Suddenly a trio of dragons plummeted through the air nearby before regaining altitude and flying away. Margot started at them and pored what was left of her wine over the side of the balcony. "I need to talk to my therapist," she muttered.

One of the dragons, a blue one, backwinged back and tossed what looked like several dollar coins. "Sorry bout that, flight training," he said before flying off.

Margot looked at the coins to see they were made of what looked like pure platinum. "Well, as least this hallucination's profitable," she muttered to herself.

--

Back with the trio, Matt flew alongside Kala, whose form was that of a red dragon with black tiger stripes. "Nice look for you," he said, flying round a corner and nearly having a very unexpected collision...with a man surfing on light. "What the smegging hell?" he said just flying out the way. "AIR HOGS!" he yelled and went "uh oh!" when the group of people turned around.

"Uh, these guys don't look friendly," said Chloe, "and I don't like that look their giving us." That particular look was that of someone who was bored for an indefinite period of time finding something fun to do.

Matt however was wearing an identical look. He considered NYC a kind of holiday where you couldn't throw a rock without hitting someone deserving of getting beaten up in the name of justice. "Who in nullspace do you think you are, blondie?" he said, hovering in place.

"The guys who rule the roost in this town and you're a couple of shooting targets," replied the leader of the group. He turned to the others and said, "$30 bucks if you clip one of their horns off!"

The leader didn't manage to start off cause Matt, who considered rules of engagement as more like guidelines, blasted him in the face and into a building. The two dragonesses quickly opened fire on the floating punks. It was painfully obvious how green these guys were as several of them got scorched or simply tumbled out of the air when they tried to avoid being hit. Matt managed to dodge two trying to double team him and clunked their heads together. "These guys are jokes, no way they're the reason we were asked to come," he said before spotting somebody watching on a rooftop. "Cool, extra points," he said and dived at the figure.

--

Matt regained consciousness to see Chloe and Kala standing over him. "What hit me?" he gibbered, his head throbbing.

"I'm not sure," said Chloe, "If I had to guess, it was some sort of magic attack. Experienced magic compared to those punks."

"Are there any left?" asked Matt.

"Nah," said Kala, "They all left after the one you tried to attack knocked you out."

"Ok. If anyone asks, there were 50 of them," Matt said.

The three dragons flew back to Wyvern Castle and landed in the courtyard. They switched back to their human forms. "Where is Xanatos?" said Matt, "I thought he was the type who came personally to welcome his guests."

Xanatos was standing behind them in the shadow of an overhand. "I am," he said, smirking when he made the three jump.

"Don't do that," said Matt.

"Sorry," said Xanatos, "Old habit. And who are these fine young ladies?"

"This is my sister, Chloe, you probably knew her better as Silvia," he said nodding to Chloe who simply nodded a greeting. "...and this is Kala 777, I did say we were having some trouble when you called," said Matt as Kala made an embarrassed hello.

"So I see," said Xanatos, "You were one of those alien experiments, right?"

"Yeah, I was," said Kala as she rubbed the back of her head.

"Well, at least you didn't make too bad a trade up," joked Xanatos.

Matt glared a bit but didn't do anything except say, "So, you said you had something of ours?"

"Well, to be more specific, Brooklyn does," said Xanatos, "You'll find him in the living room. You do remember how to get there, right?"

Matt nodded. "Yeah, I remember," he said, turning to go as the Pelican with the others rumbled into view. "Oh yeah, do you have room for two more?" he said.

"Absolutely," said Xanatos, "by the way, where's that hovercraft? I doubted it just got up and walked away."

"Actually, that's probably what he did," said Chloe. When Xanatos looked confused, Chloe said, "What do you know about Transformers?"

Xanatos for once looked confused. "Not much except I used exploding ones to explain the clan's first fight," he said.

Matt smirked, "You should watch more DVD's then."

"That's not quite the kind of Transformer I was referring to," said Chloe, "You know that toyline of vehicles that can turn into robots?"

"Oh yes," said Xanatos, "I know what you mean now. Ariana and Graeme have recently got hooked into that Beast Wars thing." Then Xanatos got what Chloe meant, "You don't mean..."

"Yep, the hovercraft's actually Chip, thanks to said problem. And Draco and Contrinus are gargoyles too," said Matt.

Xanatos stared for a second before laughing. "You're kidding me, right?" he said and stopped when the Pelican opened up and the two remaining altered crewmembers came out. Xanatos stared at Draco and Contrinus. "So they did become gargoyles," he said.

"Afraid so," said Draco.

"Well, as gargoyles go, you two don't look too bad. Don't worry, there's always room for more gargoyles here at my home."

Matt however had wandered off to look for Brooklyn. He almost ran into Ariana and Graeme. "Oh, hey there kids, you seen your dad anywhere?" he said.

"He's the living room," said Greame, "Is it true that Chip's a Transformer now?"

"What does he turn into?" asked Ariana.

"Erm, unless you've played Halo you probably won't know what I'm talking about," said Matt, before knocking at the living room door.

After hearing a 'come in', Matt opened the door to see Brooklyn and Sata who were sitting in chairs. "Matt, it's good to see you," said Brooklyn, "How have you been?"

"Ok, been attacked a few dozen times, rescued my sister, and nearly got eaten by robot sharks, you?" he said.

"Well, we're fighting evil fae now," said Brooklyn, "apparently the head of these guys has been masquerading as the CEO of Maddox Enterprises."

Matt shrugged. "We had a run in with some pointy eared weirdos. We force fed them their own teeth," he said, adding, "Xanatos said you had something for us?"

"Yes, I do," said Brooklyn as he reached into his pouch, "Hope I'm not causing any paradoxes by this." He pulled out a blue pod with the number '630' on it.

Matt stared at the pod before taking it in shaking hands. "Where did you find this?" he said faintly.

"That's easily one of the easiest things I remember from my travels," said Brooklyn, "Oddest day in my life when he popped out of the Phoenix Gate, wasn't it, dear?"

"Indeed," said Sata, "I believe the only one more confused was him."

"That gate again, between two travelers, I know for a fact time travelers do not get amnesia," said Matt, leaning against the door frame, "I spent a year using the ancients' old warp network not knowing where or when I'd pop out and my brains as good as it was first day."

"Ok, you caught us," said Brooklyn, "But don't tell the other gargoyles."

"We cannot risk damaging history," said Sata, "if that were truly possible."

"Oh please, like you're the only one with secrets. I once faked a dimensional report so the people there would be left in peace," said Matt, throwing the pod up in the air and catching it. Unfortunately and inevitably, he missed and it bounced off his wrist and landed in a flower vase with a plop. "Oh crap," said Matt gloomily.

The pod floated out of the vase as a glowing ball of golden light. It grew in size until it gave off a bright flash of light. When Matt, Brooklyn, and Sata could see again, they saw PlasMorph sitting on the ground, looking confused.

Matt was about to greet Morph when he remembered what Morph's habit of collecting restricted items had done to four of the crew so he hovered Morph with plasma control until they were nose to nose. "You are in extremely deep smeg," he said.

"Matt? Boy, is it good to see you," said Morph, "I've been having the craziest adventures. What year is it?"

"2009," said Matt, "At least back in our universe. Over here it's 199…uh…"

"8," said Brooklyn.

"Thank you, now then, do you recall a Khufan box you kept in your third drawer?" Matt said dangerously

To Matt's surprise, Morph looked very annoyed. "You snooped at my Red Kryptonite collection, didn't you?"

Matt splatted Morph against the wall, making Sata and Brooklyn jump. "HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED WHY IT'S ON THE RESTRICTED LIST UNDER 'DO NOT BUY'?" he yelled

Morph folded his arms and said, "Oh look who's talking Mr. 'I've-Got-a-Whole-Armory-Hidden-In-My-Room'."

"He, I have a sign up. You've cause reality poisoning in Chip, Draco, Contrinus and Kala. They're lucky they're not dead," said Matt, angrily, letting that sink in.

"Well, I was going to show them it later," said Morph, "But my trip through space and time got in the way. What are they now?"

"Draco and Contrinus are gargoyles, Chips a Cybertronian and Kala's been turned into a dragon/human hybrid like me and Chloe," said Matt.

"Ooh, cool," said Morph rapidly, "What does Chip turn into? Is he technorganic or all machine? Draco and Contrinus could fit in alright in here. You might want to keep them apart. Have you and Kala gone out yet? You know you can now. I bet you both wanna."

Matt looked at Morph for a second. "What in the name of all that is holy are you talking about?" he said.

"Did I say something too soon?" asked Morph. Brooklyn and Sata nodded. "Ok, I got a little excited, that's all. I mainly know about these guys' future and what happens to us while we're in this universe. But I'm not telling."

Matt glared. "You do realize I have the power to make every part of you shoot off in a different direction from all the other bits, don't you?" he said before sighing and letting Morph go. "I want you to call your contacts that gave you the Kryptonite and make them bring you some Khufan resequencer gear," he said

"Ok then," said Morph, "You think we get good enough reception here? Those guys are kinda in another universe."

"Ask Xanatos. He called us when we were on the other side of Nullspace," said Matt before remembering something. "Oh yeah, we'll need Lexington with a container we found after we followed your coordinates, but you already know that," said Matt to Brooklyn smugly before walking out with Morph.

--

Matt found Techo, Chip, and Lexington talking to each other, mostly about Chip's taller new body. "Ah, just the trio I was looking for," said Matt, "I need you guys to..." Matt trailed off when he noticed a cable sticking out of Lexington's head. "Ok, why?" he said, not able to think of anything else to say. It wasn't every day you saw a cable sticking out of someone's head.

Lexington's face turned disgruntled. "It was Maddox, or rather Madoc," said Lexington, "He sicced the Pack on me and I ended up badly hurt. He replaced my skullplate, eyes, and part of my brain with cybernetics."

"Ok..." said Matt, his tone darkening.

Chloe, for once, was the one with the violent response. "Let's go nuke him," she said.

"We would if we knew where their headquarters were," said Lex.

"But I don't we're meant to tamper with this," said Chip, "In a way, I'm finding this ironic in that I'm the only one who can talk to Lex about being a cyborg and I'm not one at the moment. Anyways, what were you wanting?"

Matt pointed at the container that had three keypads on it. "It's a tri-lock, needs three hackers to crack the lock. Personally I don't care if what's in it stays there or not but my crew do," he said.

"You've come to the right group," said Chip as he took the container, "Alright, gents. Let's see if we can crack this nut open. Hopefully not literally."

Matt left them to it, going off to ask about these halflings when his comm beeped. It was WARDEN and the AI sounded worried. "I have reason to believe a vessel has followed us. I only have, what's your word, my instincts to guide me but I am nearly 100% certain another vessel is in-system with us," said the program.

"Hmm... I don't know if machines have instincts, but it's probably a good idea to listen to them this time," said Matt, "Keep all scanners open for anything. I don't want to be sneak-attacked here. Come to think of it, I don't want to be sneak-attacked anywhere."

--

WARDEN had been right about one thing. The ship had been followed. As WARDEN informed Matt, a small ship flew towards Central Park, its appearance kin to that of the shell of a hermit crab. It emanated the air of power and of terrible danger to those who might try to disturb it. It settled in an out of the way clearing and three people, apparently humans, got out. Their names were Taleth, Seleni, and Janeth, the third with some kind of lizard/salamander creature on his shoulder. "So, we just find this hatchling, kill her companions, and spend the rest of the week on holiday? I've always wanted to see New York," said Seleni with barely concealed bloodthirst.

Meanwhile a group of odd humans were watching them. One might consider them odd because of their hair, which were brightly colored and a few were in some odd styles. But when you looked closer, you could see that their ears tempered to a point at the top. Their apparent leader also had pointed ears, but was of such an unassuming air with ordinary mousey hair, one could forget as soon as they took eyes off him.

The one called Taleth looked at Janeth who was fussing over his pet, happily. Janeth sighed and looked around. One of the halflings yelped as Janeth's eyes had turned to reptilian ones. "Over there, about 8 of em," he said pointing at them.

Taleth sighed, "Come out please. I hate killing as soon as I arrive."

Garlon stepped out from behind the bushes. He studied the trio as well as the lizard-like creature. "So there is life on other planets," he said, "That would make sense on account that the dragons of this world were wiped out eons ago. If you have any business on this planet, I suggest you keep to it and not dally. Dragons are not favored fondly here, even creatures that masquerade as them."

Taleth's smile vanished faster then coffee on the Bladestorm. "I beg your pardon? Are you actually threatening me? I was alive millennia before you and you challenge me?" he said coldly.

Garlon adjusted his glasses and said, "I doubt that you could be older than be me, though I do know dragons can withstand the ages like fae. But whatever you really are, I suggest you get about your business and leave. Magic is a powerful factor here and we of the Unseelie Court are very adapt at using it."

"And my...masters were masters of it long before you, Seleni? Kill their strongest, quickly please. I hate the screams," Taleth said. Seleni smiled evilly, aimed her hand at the largest halfling and a glob of green goo hit the guy in the face...and carried on before hitting the tree behind him, dissolving a streak down it before vanishing. The headless halfling fell dead. "Magic's overrated," said Taleth.

"I wish you hadn't done that," said Garlon before moving his hand forward in a tossing motion. Instantly, a blistering wind of subzero temperature started blowing at the trio.

Taleth yawned and made a gesture. The wind stopped in front of him. "Like I said, more experience," he said and sent the wind into another of the halflings, quick-freezing him.

Janeth carefully put his pet down and looked over at Garlon. "I think I heard a story about a Garlon, some fae that got turned into a mouse, right?" he said innocently

Garlon's face turned red. "That is a particularly painful subject and you were very unwise to bring it up," he said. A miasma of fire and lightning appeared in his hand and he threw it at them, the energy forming into a tidal wave shaped like an angry maw.

When it went away, the three looked singed, but unharmed apart from that. "Look, we're only looking for one of our own. She has the form of a red dragon?" said Taleth exasperated, "Just let us look otherwise you'll be at this all night."

"I hardly think that it will take that long," said Garlon as he pointed his hand forward as a signal for the halflings to charge, which they did so with great determination.

Taleth and the others sighed before drawing weapons that Garlon recognized vaguely as something called Ion blades. The halflings' shields were useless and in a matter of moments they were all dead or dying. Taleth put his away. "I think you should run," he said, before calmly pulling out a dagger version and stabbing a wounded halfling in the head.

"You have made many enemies tonight," said Garlon, "You may have defeated these halfings, but I doubt you'd stand a chance against the likes of Sekmet or Kali. I'd keep a low profile on this planet if I were you." With that, Garlon disappeared in a flash of green light.

Seleni looked over at Taleth who said, "Well, it'd be nice to meet her again."

"We have no times for pleasantries," said Teleth, "We came here for the hatchling, remember?"

The group nodded and headed out of the park

--

Meanwhile, the two techno geniuses were working on cracking the locking code on that canister. It took them half an hour, but the canister finally clicked open. "The puzzle's solved," said Lexington, "and our prize is..." He took a look inside the canister, "Eeewwww."

Matt and Kala looked at it and Matt turned a funny color before running out.

Kala said faintly, "Definitely NegaMorph's heart."

"What's going on?" asked Morph as he came into the room. The crew had been really happy to have him back on account of how dull it had been without him. (Draco had considered getting a hand puppet to relieve the boredom, but that was discouraged on account that Morph hated puppets.)

Kala said "Oh, we found what's left of NegaMorph," she said, obviously having trouble not being sick herself. It wasn't every day you saw a disembodied heart that was clearly still beating.

"Ooh, can I see?" asked Morph.

"Er, if you want to," said Kala, "But it's kinda gross."

"Uh, Kala, this is Morph you're talking to," said Techo.

Kala thought about this and shrugged, letting Morph past.

Morph looked at the heart for a couple seconds before saying, "You know, it looked a lot bigger when we were inside him."

Matt came staggering back in. "Ok, we have what's left of him, now what? His only use is as a Halloween style doorstop," he said

"Well, reviving him would naturally require a biogenetics lab of relatively advanced design," said Chip, "Plus, I think we'd need DNA that mostly resembles his."

Everyone looked at Morph at this. "Oh, is that the time?" said Morph worriedly and tried to escape only for Matt to stop him in place.

"Ever wanted to be a doner?" he said

"Morph's DNA will probably work," said Chip, "but I suggest we also use Megan's. After all, she is NegaMorph's niece, sort of."

At this the crew all went pale, the memory of the last meeting with Megan's current guardian, Baba Yaga, still fresh in their minds. "Ok, can we just settle with Morph's?" asked Matt as he picked said experiment up by the tail to keep him from escaping.

"Considering the condition he's in, I think we'll need to do everything we can," said Chip, "Perhaps Baba will be in a better mood."

"Or maybe she'll turn us all into parrots," reminded Matt.

"Which is why we'll be having someone who can succeed at diplomacy talk to her," said Chip, "Of course, that immediately eliminates the Lynch siblings and Chris."

Chloe electrocuted Chip at that till he had a 'Blitzwing' moment before saying, "Actually I'm rated for hostage negotiations. Chose that instead of demolitions," she said.

"Vell, zat certainly explains a lot," said Chip, "I alvays thought she vas more graceful zan Matt." Then his head spun and he said, "But with a few etiquette lessons, he'll smooth talk any girl out of a tree. Ooh la la!"

Matt glared at Chip. "Shock him again," he said. Chloe sighed but didn't do it.

A short while later, Fox was able to use the little bit of fae magic she could do to get her mirror working as a communication portal. After a bit, they managed to get it set to contact Baba Yaga's hut. Baba Yaga wasn't very pleased about her privacy being invaded, nor the fact that Chloe apparently 'reeked of dragon stench'.

Chloe, in contrast to what Matt would have done in response, ignored the insult and said, "We need to see Megan urgently," though her tone of voice showed she was barely holding back her anger.

"Ha! I bet you would," said Baba Yaga, "Puck set you up to this, didn't he?"

"No, a...friend of hers is very ill. I believe you met him once, NegaMorph," said Chloe, again not rising to the bait though she was clenching her hands which had morphed to dragon form without her noticing.

"NegaMorph, NegaMorph," muttered Baba, "about ye tall, black with red eyes, no symmatry?"

"That'd be him," said Chloe, "We really need to treat him and we can't do it without Megan."

Baba stared thoughtfully at Chloe and said, "I don't think so. If Megan's to win that contest, she must be constantly training."

"What contest?" Chloe said, genuinely confused.

"I had a wager with Titania," said Baba Yaga, "I said that I can educate a better magician than Puck ever could. So she had Oberon set up contest. When Alex is of proper age, he and Megan shall see who can do better. If Alex wins, Puck gets freedom from all punishments from Oberon and me. If Megan wins, Puck becomes my errand boy."

"Well, shouldn't you let Megan decide? She is unofficially related to NegaMorph." said Chloe

"Perhaps," said Baba, still looking undecided.

Chloe decided to go for a classic negotiations technique; ego-stoking. "Plus, Megan can take months off on vacation and you'd still be able to teach good enough to beat Alex," said Chloe.

That seemed to do it as when Matt finally looked back in, having been forbidden from going anywhere near Baba Yaga in case he got birdy-fied again, saw that Chloe was still human. In fact, Megan was with her. Megan didn't look that much different to Matt, but he noticed that she had a gleam of her eye that implied both wisdom and a mischievous streak. "Well, I've managed to talk Baba into letting us have Megan," said Chloe.

"Well, that's great," said Chris, who, though he never directly got the brunt of Baba's magic, was still cautious about dealing with her.

Megan butted in at this. "But I have a few conditions before I help...is Matt ok?" she said as Matt fled, screaming something about not wanting to be a parrot.

"Uh, he'll be ok," said Chloe, "So, what exactly do you want?"

"Well, I want to come along when you guys blast off," said Megan, "Magic study's fun, but I need a break from the fantasy stuff and focus on sci-fi a bit. Plus, I'll want my own room and I get to bring whatever possessions I want along."

"Er, ok," said Chloe, "but since Matt's captain, you'll have to speak with him about that."

Later, Megan had given her demands in person to Matt. "Not a chance in any hell you care to name. We already have enough trouble with Chupy. You can come along by all means, but no magic crap. We have enough trouble with the regular crap," he said.

Megan said, "I could make you."

Matt smirked at this, (something that, later he considered had probably been what pushed Megan too far) and said, "Yeah, right..." turning to leave.

Megan cracked her fingers and said, "This should be fun. I've always wanted to try this." A pink glow covered her hand before she pointed and it flew out and hit Matt. When Matt felt the magic hit him, he screamed, expecting to be covered in feathers again. But instead, his scream went up several octaves.

"That's all you can do? A magic equivalent of helium?" he said.

Megan just smirked, "Look in the mirror." Matt shrugged and did so...and just stared.

Well on one side, Matt was still a human. On the other side, he wasn't a man. Matt just stared at the girl who had a passing resemblance to Chloe, only with ill-fitting clothes and messier hair. "I picked up that little trick when Uncle Nega first banished me," said Megan, "Do I make my case now?"

Matt finally turned and Megan gulped as she spotted Matt's extremely murderous look. "WHY YOU LITTLE..." he (she?) said and Matt dived at her, missing by a few centimeters. "Damn this body of mine...stay still and be choked to death!"

"Projection's a little off?" asked Megan, "Maybe it's those clothes of yours. They're not exactly streamlined now." Suddenly Matt felt her clothes tightening around her body, only not in the same way as before. She looked down to see that she was now wearing a tank top and short shorts that were purposefully designed to show off skin and leave little to imagination.

Matt however was a quick learner and finally grabbed Megan in a headlock. "Turn me back or I'll cook you like a bag of popcorn," she said only to be hit on the head by Megan. "Bleah?" she managed staggering a bit

"You know I do know how to do mental transformations too," said Megan, "I could make your mind match your body. I'm pretty sure Chris might be interested in the new you. And Chloe will have so many pictures to remember this."

This snapped Matt back to full consciousness and, in a surprising agreement between both her minds, Matt and Draconus both yelled. "NO!" Matt finally got control back to reluctantly say, "Is there a point to this...torture? Plus you know mental transformations do not work on A-001'ers."

"I'm just showing you I'm not powerless," said Megan, "So, will you give full consideration of my conditions, or would you rather hit the nightclubs?"

A plasma burst almost took her head off at that. "I guess that's a no to the second question," she said.

"Fine, you can bring a few things But Draco has to make sure they won't bring nasty things aboard. We already have a chupacabra we can't get rid of," said Matt.

"Oh, you won't have to worry about a thing," said Megan, "You'll hardly know it's there." Matt cleared her throat impatiently. "Oh, right," said Megan and her hand flashed pink again.

Matt sighed as he felt his Y chromosome being returned to him. "That's better," he said, "Now can we get back to business?" Matt looked at the mirror and glared. "Clothes back please, that battle gear's expensive," he said as Megan burst out laughing before adding to himself, "Note, ask Baba Yaga to put some kind of restriction on her powers."

--

Some time later, Matt had Draco and Contrinus check out that warehouse whose address Brooklyn had sent. Brooklyn and Sata went along with them since Draco and Contrinus were still getting used to be gargoyles. Chloe had tagged along too and she sliced the main door to pieces...and nearly had her head blown off by a droid that resembled a four legged walking laser cannon.

"That's a new design for me," said Draco, "Let's see if this new body is as least as strong as the old one." Several more strode round the corner, firing rapidly at the intruders. Chloe deflected a few before transforming to dragon form to fly and dodge the rest.

Sata tried to slice the cannon off one, but her sword just skimmed along the metal. "Looks like it's too tough for cutting," said Brooklyn, "We'll have to try something more brunt." The first droid to test this was when Brooklyn landed on its top and forced its aim towards a fellow droid, the blast blowing its fellow apart. "Quick notice," said Brooklyn, "They can destroy each other."

"Great," said Contrinus sarcastically, "this would be so much easier when I was smaller."

At that, several droids roughly resembling spiderbots scuttled out before opening fire with small arm laser blasts. "I hope these aren't as indestructible as the ones back home," said Draco as he opened his mouth to blast them. When all that came was air, the droids looked at each other, shrugged, and started firing again. "Oh yeah," said Draco, "Gargoyles don't have breath weapons. Need to remember that."

Chloe did a roll in the air and spat a torrent of lightning onto the droids, frying a few of the older looking ones but not affecting the rest. "I guess the emperors upgraded for me," she said before landing on one and plunging her blade up to the hilt into its head.

Contrinus landed on one and twisted its cannon to face backwards. The droid promptly blew itself up. "Huh, so this is what it feels like to have superstrength," said Contrinus. One of the empire spiderbots leapt on her back and began stabbing her with its arms, not doing much harm but 20 or so pin stabs tend to eventually wear anyone down. It squealed as it did this until a lightning blast from Chloe sent it flying.

Draco immediately went to Contrinus's side. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"I'll be fine," said Contrinus, "A single day's sleep should cure this."

The last few droids seemed to be more interested in escape now, obviously programmed to know when to quit. Chloe didn't give them the opportunity, blasting them in their exposed rear armor until the last one fell silent. "Let's find what we're here for in case there's more. This must be some kind of weapon cache," she said before looking at Brooklyn. "Lucky guess finding it, eh?" she said, the question obviously with a hook in it.

"As long as it's not causing trouble for someone else," said Brooklyn, "You know, Broadway would probably prefer to see these destroyed."

"I like his plan. This was obviously meant as a staging ground for an arriving assault fleet. I guess when me and Nega vanished the plans were cancelled," said Chloe, kicking open a door to find several cowering medical droids. She ignored them and moved on.

"And yet I feel like this was supposed to guard something more," said Sata, "It is common for temple builders to hide the real treasure behind lesser treasures."

Chloe nodded and walked back to where the medical droids had been before using a lightning bolt to blow the back wall in with a crack of deafening thunder. Beyond it was what looked like a fully equipped cloning lab. A human in an empire medical uniform was also there and he screamed before trying to hide. "Don't kill me! I surrender!" he yelped.

"We are not the kind that slay our enemies for our own enjoyment," said Sata, "Tell us why this is here."

"I'm not going back to that madman, Dr. Johnson. He's totally lost it so you freaks and Silvia can sod off," said the Doctor, pronouncing Johnson's name like it was something vile before waving a blaster at them like an amateur.

"Easy there," said Draco, "We're not taking you to anyone in the Empire, let alone Johnson. Now put the gun down before you hurt someone. Most likely yourself from the way you're holding it."

The doctor finally dropped the gun. "My name is Dr. Arron Lias. I was in command of the bio-weapon lab here," he said, obviously one wrong word from going mental. Something had him spooked so bad an army of combat droids couldn't make him feel better.

"Let me guess, Hamsterviel commissioned that you made a war monster," said Brooklyn. He turned to Chloe and said, "His name is Hamsterviel, right? It just doesn't sound right for an evil space emperor."

"Negative 630 was just a combat prototype. The real version was brought live a week ago. It's called OmegaMorph...my god, I should have terminated the experiment while it was in stasis," Lias said before breaking down, his head in his hands.

"OmegaMorph?" said Chloe, "What's that? The Viral Clone equivalent of EnigMorph or something?"

"It's a monster...a demon. We sent it against a Combine colony. It had orders to bring a Combine back for study. It...killed them all...and it enjoyed every minute. After it killed the military, it tortured the civilian populace on purpose until we had to forcibly teleport it back," said Lias

Contrinus shuddered as the mental images filled her head. "It sounds like Hamsterviel's gone to far this time."

Chloe however had an idea that she was positive would work. "How would like the chance to end OmegaMorph's terror once and for all?" she said.

"Anything to atone. The 'proud' empire can burn for all I care," said Lias, coldly before nodding at a pack of the base's spiderbots that had amassed behind the group without them noticing. The bots all beeped and scuttled off though the lights from their optics showed they had not gone far. Obviously staff protectiveness ran in the spiderbot line.

"Good," said Chloe, "In that case, we've got a project for you to work on. We'll be back with the supplies you'll need. Er, you're not the type to freak out at anything unusual, are you?"

Lias stared. "I created two of the most powerful creatures in existence and the Commander AI's...why do you ask?"

Chloe put that fact mentally aside for later and said, "Well, it's just that some of the people coming are...really odd in shape and behavior."

"I can handle more gargoyles...what? You think you can flap past my hideout night after night and the security AI won't notice?" he said.

"Well, yes, and a few aliens, and a large robot." Lias raised an eyebrow. "Freak reality shield accident," explained Chloe.

Lias shrugged. "You should have seen Beta team after an accident with our attempts at copying the tech," he said.

--

Some time later, the crew was busy getting all the equipment set up. "Careful with that," said Lias as Chip was hoisting up some machinery, "Those can't be easily replaced, you know."

Wilson said to Chris, "If he says that again, would you go wolf and rip his head off please?"

"This lab must be working perfectly in order," said Lias, "I am, after all, trying to recreate a cloning accident with only a small remnant of its DNA and some similar DNA from donors. Does that sound easy to you?"

Techo, just to taunt Lias, said "Yes," and had a hand tool thrown at him with surprising accuracy.

"Enough clowning around from you two. That's his job," said Matt as he pointed at Morph, who had stuck test tubes over his eyes.

"Morph. Stop that for heaven's sake. You don't know what's been in that," said Chloe.

Lias said absently, "Oh, just acid."

Morph quickly found out that there was some traces of it left as he quickly pulled the beakers off and clutched at his eyes, crying in pain.

Lias suddenly remembered, "No wait, we used those to make the tea." At that everyone just stared at Morph in confusion.

"Anyways, how exactly are we going to revive NegaMorph?" asked Megan, who was now in her Lady NegaMorph form.

Lias strolled up and, without warning, cut a tiny piece off one of Megan's tentacles. "With this..." he said before looking between Kala and Morph, "And those two."

At those words every merc pulled out a blaster. "Nobody mentioned Kala being a DNA doner," said Matt.

"Originally, she wasn't supposed to be," said Lias, "But it appears that NegaMorph's mental aspects are unbalanced and he could easily end up like OmegaMorph. Therefore, he requires a donor of notable mental stability that isn't already a part of his genome."

Matt glared. "Nothing doing. You are not hooking up Kala to that...thing," he said.

"I'm not taking a chunk of her brain out, if that's what you're thinking," said Lias, "A mere blood sample will suffice. Although, a sample of her brain fluid might prove more effective." Lias had to duck a plasma bolt at that. "I WANT HIM OUT OF HERE UNTIL THE PROCEDURES FINISHED!" yelled Lias angrily.

Matt was about to protest when Chip picked him up with one hand. "Sorry about this," he said as he took Matt away.

Kala looked nervous now until Chloe stepped up next to Lias. "If you hurt her, I'll gut you," she whispered to Lias who went pale.

Lias gulped and said, "Not to fear. Unlike my former colleagues, I try to make all my, surgeries if you will, as painless as possible."

Matt however had gone dragon and was raging against Chip. "Let me in right now!" he said, adding, "That's a bloody order."

"I'm sorry, but I believe the doctor's orders supersedes the captain's orders," said Chip. He paused and said, "You know, this is a rather interesting size reversal, isn't it? Normally, it's you who's picking me up."

"I could still melt your leg joints off," said Matt angrily.

"Now Matt, is there any real reason you're worked up over this?" said Chip, "I know you don't like NegaMorph, but you've agreed to his resurrection. Or perhaps your concern for Kala goes farther than just captain or friend?"

"No…she's in the hands of a self-publicized genetic butcher for Hamsterjerk...and you're letting him loose on her!" yelled Matt before doing something Chip didn't expect, ducking between his legs and out the room he was in.

When Chip bent around to see where Matt went, he went off balance and fell onto his back. Chip grumbled to himself and said, "All these high-tech Cybertronian joints and I couldn't get a bendable waist? How do you roll over with these wings?"

Matt blasted the lock off the door to find the device already working, Kala in a tube next to one with the heart on. Chris and Techo had to grab him to stop him turning dragon and trying to rip Lias apart. Fortunately Contrinus got there first and grabbed Matt at the base of the neck. "The Vulcan Nerve Pinch?" said Matt, "That trick never really..." His voice trailed off as he slumped over unconscious.

Lias breathed a sigh of relief and turned back to the controls. "Almost complete...stand by..." he said and threw a switch, causing Kala to scream so loud that Brooklyn and Sata, who had been on guard outside the warehouse burst in a moment later. "Sorry!" apologized Lias to the others quickly, "I said I'd try to make this as painless as possible. I can't guarantee complete painlessness."

The device finally powered down, a glowing mass in the tube with NegaMorph's remains in it. "There, simple," said Dr Lias before opening Kala's tube, causing her to fall out, unconscious. "She'll need to rest for a bit," said Dr. Lias, "Her role is over."

--

Matt opened his eyes to find himself nose to nose with Bronx. "Eeep," he managed before remembering there were worse things to wake up to...most of which had been discovered by him. He looked around to see Draco and Chris there. "Ok, what happened?" he said before trying desperately to get Bronx off him.

"Well, Lias managed to get the DNA together to rebuild NegaMorph's body," said Chris. "But there's been a setback," said Draco.

"What about the aching neck? BLEAH! GARGOYLE SLOBBER!" he said as Bronx licked him.

"Well, Contrinus had to stop you from making a mess at the lab," said Draco.

"Besides, I hear gargbeast drool is a great ointment," said Chris.

"Really?" asked Matt.

"Nah, I'm just kidding. It's just sticky and wet."

Draco stepped aside smartly as Matt tackled Chris and began strangling him, what little self-control gone with that comment. Contrinus and Chloe found him still strangling Chris when they arrived shortly after. "Hmm...well, Matt's ok then," said Chloe.

Contrinus said, "Shouldn't we stop him?"

Chloe looked at Contrinus and said, "Be my guest."

Contrinus looked at Matt and shrugged, "He needs stress relief."

About a minute later, Kala walked by the room. She had apparently taken a shower as her hair was wrapped up in a towel and she was only wearing a bathrobe. She heard the commotion coming from the room and stepped inside. "What's going on here?" she asked.

Matt and Chris stopped dead. The sort of arrival Kala had accidently managed has that effect on males of any species. It only worked for a minute before Matt remembered why he was trying to choke Chris and got back down to business.

"I think Matt needs to let off some steam...and I really need to talk to you, girl to girl," said Chloe.

Chris managed, "Can't you...get...him...OFF ME FIRST?"

Draco sighed and picked Matt and Chris up before knocking their heads together. "Now are you going to play nicely or not?" he said.

Matt glared and then blasted Chris's head. "All done," he said childishly as Chris wiped soot from his face.

"Anyways, I'm sure you'd like to see the end result of our science experiment," said Contrinus.

Matt nodded. "Where did Lias go, by the way?"

Chris said, "WARDEN gave him a shuttle, he left."

Matt looked gloomy at that. "Aw...so, let's go see if Nega is a complete psychopath or not," he said before looking at Draco. "You can let go now."

Draco set Matt and Chris down and the group started down the hallway. "Did you see the look on Matt's face when Kala walked in," whispered Draco to Contrinus, "Priceless."

"Hmm, does that give you any ideas?" whispered Contrinus suggestively.

Draco raised an eyebrow and said, "I'm open to suggestions."

Matt followed Chris to where NegaMorph was. "You sure he's safe?" said Matt.

"I don't think he'll be attacking us anytime soon," said Chris. They went into a smaller room where NegaMorph was sitting on a bed.

"Hey there, Nega. Bet you're glad to be alive and stuff again," Matt said vaguely. Matt expected to hear NegaMorph give some sort of blunt response, but didn't hear anything. He looked again to see that NegaMorph was just staring blankly ahead. "NegaMorph? Are you okay?" said Matt. When NegaMorph didn't respond, Matt snapped his fingers in front of his face, but got the same reaction. "Ok...what did the good doctor say before he exited wormhole left?" said Matt to Chris, "He's resurrected NegaMorph but forgot to give his brain back?"

"According to Dr. Lias, NegaMorph is physically healthy," said Chris, "But apparently he's suffering from psychological trauma."

"Well, what he's been through I can't guess, but it musta been nasty. Did Chloe try chatting to him?" said Matt.

"I've been talking to him till I'm purple in the face. Well, purpler in the face, but it doesn't seem to do any good," said Chloe.

"Have you tried hitting him?" said Matt and tried to hit NegaMorph on the head, only for Nega to grab him and throw him out the window without looking. Matt flapped up in dragon form. "Well...we got a reaction," he said, flying back in and turning back.

"That was just a reflex," said Chris, "The same as whacking your knee to make your leg kick. Whatever's going on inside his head, it's pretty deep."

Kala said, "He was trapped in darkness. When me and Morph were in him, we saw so much pain and darkness. Maybe what he went through was too much? Like overfilling an engine?"

"But hasn't he always been like that?" asked Matt.

"Think about it," said Kala, "The last time you saw him, what was he like? I mean, other than sending Morph through a wormhole."

"He was insane with anger given Chloe was back on the home team." said Matt.

Chris said, "You weren't much better. You were ready to murder him."

Matt added, "Then he seemed to just...give up."

"I don't think he had anything left to fight for," said Kala, "No clones, no Silvia, nothing. And he didn't have anything left in the end."

"That still doesn't explain why Hamsterviel tried to incinerate him," said Chris.

Chloe recalled what Lias had said. "Dr Lias mentioned that NegaMorph was just a live-fire prototype, said something about a mainstream version that used NegaMorph to make it."

"Whoa, whoa, back up," said Draco, "Are you saying that Hamsterviel destroyed NegaMorph to create OmegaMorph?"

"If that were true," said Contrinus, "that would require him stripping NegaMorph apart at the genetic level."

"Yeah, that'll do it. They do that on gene therapy but I'm certain he didn't have the luxury of an anesthetic," said Matt, looking at NegaMorph. "Musta shattered his mind like a mirror, we'd need a powerful incentive to snap him out of it."

"I think I might know what that would be," said Kala. The others turned to look at her. "A soul shade and a soul shine are basically two halves of two souls whose light and dark parts are with the other one, right?"

Matt turned to Kala, horrified. "But you forget, they tend to cause a very big boom when they touch," he said

"I'm not talking about a shock treatment," said Kala, "I'm talking about a transfusion."

"I repeat my previous statement...ARE YOU NUTS? You're human now and alot easier to kill."

Kala looked at Matt sternly and said, "I'm more than just human. I'm part dragon like you or Chloe. I'm a lot stronger than you guess. So I don't need you overprotecting me."

"I'm also your captain and I do not want to see you hurt. I care too much for that to..." he said and stopped when his brain registered what he said. "I mean...It's a captain's responsibility to make sure his crew isn't hurt," he added vaguely.

"Oh my god, you do have a crush on her," said Chloe, momentarily forgetting her comatose friend in light of something new to tease Matt about.

"What?" said Matt.

"Actually, it's been obvious for a while," said Draco.

"Especially on Kala's side," said Contrinus.

Matt made a fake cough. "Well...I...oh shut it," he said and walked off in a huff, leaving the others. Chloe turned to Kala who was blushing. "Can you do this?" she said, referring to NegaMorph.

"Well, uh, not by myself, I don't think," said Kala, "I was thinking maybe I could ask Demona or Megan to help. This is a matter of souls after all. You can't really use science for this."

Chloe nodded. "Megan can help. I doubt Demona will want to help us."

Nevertheless, since Megan was still at apprentice level, the clan had Angela call Demona. Angela picked up the telephone and dialed her mother's number.

"Destine residence," came the response.

"Mother, it's me, Angela," said Angela.

"Ah, my child, why are you calling? It's not Friday yet."

"I know, but a friend of mine requires help. Do you recall a couple months ago when an alien called NegaMorph was in New York?"

* * *

There's another chapter. We see Kala use her powers to full potential here. But it looks like someone's interested in her, for less than peaceful reasons. And PlasMorph's back in town. Prepare for all kinds of crazy shenanigans. And Megan's back too, with several new tricks up her sleeve. Not to mention NegaMorph has made a return as well, sort of. But he won't remain in a coma for long. See what happens in the next chapter, which is coming soon. Please review.


	3. Light in the Darkness

**Voyager Saga**

**Change of Soul**

**Chapter 3: Light in the Darkness**

Surprisingly, Demona was quite willing to help with the soul transfusion and came over at once to set things up for the ritual.

Matt however was suspicious. He finally managed to corner her. "Ok, why are you helping us? You must stand to profit somehow," he said.

"In a way, I'm doing this for the advancement of science, if it can be called that," said Demona as she checked to see if there were any herbs that needed to be gathered, "Also for the challenge. Soul magic is considered one of the more complex branches of the art and doing a transfusion should be both fascinating and exciting. And I suppose a bit of it is for NegaMorph himself."

Matt nodded. "Fine, just make sure that Kala's ok through this. I don't give a flying smeg what happens to NegaMorph but if Kala has so much as a twitch..." he said and left the end of the sentence hanging.

Demona turned and glared at Matt. "That is part of the reason I'm doing this for NegaMorph," said Demona, "I happen to know what it feels like to be outcasted by others for what I've done. If you've experienced that as well, you'd be more considerate in possible redemption for him."

Matt returned the glare. "He regularly tried to kill me and my crew, kept my sister from returning, despite knowing the truth, and at the end almost killed Morph. People like that rarely change," he said before turning to leave.

Demona's eyes briefly flashed red before she controlled herself and got back to the task at hand. "The fool barely knows what he's talking about," Demona muttered to herself, "He has never lived in darkness with little light."

Matt was gone for nearly half an hour, finally coming back to find the ritual in full swing.

Draco noticed Matt and asked, "Where have you been?"

"Out, needed to let off some steam. Is it going well? Can't really tell," Matt said, watching the ritual.

"I think they've just been securing lifelines so far, so to speak," said Draco, "You know, making sure that their hearts don't stop at any point during the ritual."

Matt added, "Making sure nothing explodes. I've an idea given our track record with magic. Let's hide behind that door over there, looks tough," sounding a bit nervous.

Kala and NegaMorph were both lying on separate tables, both appeared to be in a deep sleep. Demona was having Angela and Megan drawn runes with chalk and place bowls of herbs around a circle that Demona had drawn on the floor.

Matt looked around to see that the marines he'd ordered down to make sure the awakened Nega didn't try anything had similar ideas to him, peering out from various cover.

"Very good," said Demona at last, "The pentagram is complete. Now comes the tricky part." The three sorceresses took their place on the sides of the pentagram, each an equal distance from the other.

Then as one, they intoned, "_Levo sicco animus illorum duos somnus._" Matt watched as a white orb floated out of Kala's chest while a black orb came out of NegaMorph.

Draco said, "Well, looks like its working, Matt...Matt?" he looked to the side and down to see Matt laying face down with his helmet pushed down over his face.

"What are you doing?" asked Draco.

"Um, just checking to see if the comlinks are working," muttered Matt.

Draco turned back to watch, muttering, "Chicken."

Matt muttered "Smeghead," in response but stood back up.

Then the three sorceresses intoned, "_Extraho caligo secui of niveus quod relevo secui of niger_." A small orb of light grey color came out of Kala's orb while a small orb of dark grey color came out of NegaMorph's.

Matt looked worried and was stopped from walking forward by Draco putting a hand on his shoulder

Then the trio spoke another chant, "_Suo per ceterus animus quod fio unus_." The smaller orbs floated over to the other larger orbs and sank into them. As they did so, the larger orbs slowly changed to become a neutral grey. Then finally, they chanted, "_Reverto ut vestri populus_," and the orbs went back into Kala and NegaMorph's bodies.

Kala was the first to stir and Matt pushed past Draco to get to her. "Kala? It's ok, you're fine," he said, anxiously

"I feel strange," said Kala, "My thoughts and memories suddenly gotten so much deeper."

"Darkness is necessary for true perception," commented Demona.

Matt held up a hand. "How many fingers?" he said

"Not that kind of perception," said Demona with annoyance, "I meant seeing things as they truly are."

"I guessed that, but I doubt this has been done before," he said as NegaMorph groaned back to consciousness behind him...and spotted Matt first.

"What is this? Heaven?" muttered NegaMorph then he really noticed Matt, "Wait a minute. Oh no, Matt's here! This must be the other place!"

"You're not dead, blob boy." said Matt annoyed.

"Could have fooled me," groaned NegaMorph, "I'm pretty sure I was dead. Genetic vivisection isn't the kind of thing you live to tell the tale about."

"Well, Morph helped bring you back," said Matt, dully finally turning to face NegaMorph.

"Morph? He's back?" said NegaMorph. Matt expected NegaMorph to get that old bloodlust in his eyes but he only sighed sadly. "Figures, I can't even get rid of him for good."

"You pushed him through a portal knowing full well we regularly go to different realities, of course we'd have found him," said Matt

"And I suppose now you've just brought me back to take your pot shots at me," said NegaMorph, "Don't know why you even bothered. I'm not worth keeping around for anyone."

"Well, surprisingly the crew voted to bring you back to life. I voted to drop you off at NSC command," said Matt rudely.

"Should of done that, I'm useless to anyone," said NegaMorph, "I wasn't even supposed to exist in the first place."

Matt rolled his eyes and said, "What happened to the self-confident pain in my butt?"

"He died a long time ago," said NegaMorph as he got up and walked off. "If you can just get me a ship, I'll head off to somewhere dark and desolate where no one will be bothered by me."

Matt sighed and said, "No, I don't think so, for a start we can't spare one."

"Than why must you prolong my misery?" said NegaMorph, "I'm nothing but a malformed wretch. You couldn't possibly want my company. I wouldn't."

"Well, personally I don't but my crew disagree," said Matt, making 'back me up' motions at the others.

"Uncle NegaMorph," said Megan, "You're not that alone. You still have me." NegaMorph barely glanced back at her. "You don't need me. You have your own life, your own family. I'm nothing."

Kala was silent till Matt kicked her. "Ow, I mean, I do believe anyone can atone, even you," she said though it didn't sound like she meant it.

"Thanks for the support," said NegaMorph, "but I don't think there's any reason for me to continue existing. If there ever was. I'm just going to find myself a dark room and rot there."

Matt looked like he was ready to choke NegaMorph. "You ungrateful excuse for chewing gum," he said angrily.

NegaMorph simply just walked out of the room and was instantly met by the marines. NegaMorph raised his arms up and said, "Go ahead. Take your best shots."

Matt glared at NegaMorph. "We improved the guns. You are not going. You want to go to a dark place? You can go to Kryos," he said

"Fine. Whatever. Do want you want," said NegaMorph, "I don't care anymore."

--

Meanwhile, Madoc was listening to Garlon give his report. "Hmm, dragons in New York? Wonders will never cease."

"I do not think these creatures are to be taken lightly," said Garlon, "They destroyed an entire platoon of halflings."

"Then we will send something sturdier than halflings to deal with them," said Madoc, "Send the Pack. They've been getting restless I hear."

"Yes, my lord," said Garlon as he got out his cell phone and started dialing.

--

Matt had been very insistent on not letting NegaMorph leave and more insistent that Chloe not see him in case there was any remnants of Silvia left. Chloe, however, had sneaked in anyway. "NegaMorph?" she said, peering in with a energy bolt ready behind her back, just in case.

NegaMorph looked up at the sound of her voice. The brief look of hope on his face vanished when he saw her. "Oh, it's you," he said sadly.

"Look, I know I'm not Silvia, but I was part of her. I still consider you a friend," she said, sitting down opposite him.

"I know that," said NegaMorph, "I don't resent you for that. It's just that with letting you out, it'd be Matt gaining and me losing. I just couldn't take that."

"For gods' sake, you haven't lost me at all," said Chloe, sighing.

"Haven't I?" said NegaMorph, "You've got everything, a brother, friends, a position back in the NSC. Why would you waste any time with me?"

"Because you made sure I had a chance to get all that back," said Chloe, starting to lose her temper a bit.

"But now you do and you don't need me anymore," said NegaMorph, "In fact, just spending time in my company could risk your position."

"I'm a merc, nobody tells me who I can or cannot talk to, not even my brother," said Chloe.

NegaMorph just stayed silent and Chloe said, "I'll let you think it over." She got up and left the room.

As she was walking down the hallway, she bumped into a tall man wearing a suit you'd expect to see on a literature professor. "Pardon me, ma'am," he said with a thick Scottish accent, "I was just lookin' fer someone by the name of 'NegaMorph'. Ye know where I can find him?"

"In there," said Chloe, walking on before she realized a total stranger had asked about someone who was supposed to be a secret. "Ok, hold it, bud. Who are you?" she said, warming her blaster.

"Pardon me, I forget myself," said the man, "Name's Macbeth. Angela asked if I could speak to this fella. She thinks I may be able to cheer him up."

Chloe glared, "Fine, but no funny business. That's not a threat, it's a warning. If he wants to he could tear you to bits."

"Indeed," said Macbeth, "Then ye better come with me for introduction purposes. This fella is an actual alien, correct?"

"Yes, this way please." said Chloe, leading the way and knocking on the door, "Negamorph? You got a visitor."

"Ye sound more like a prison guard than ye do a friend," commented Macbeth.

"Well, NegaMorph wasn't exactly an upstanding member of society. I want to stay his friend but he's a danger if he wants to be," said Chloe sadly

Chloe opened the door and let Macbeth in. Macbeth looked at NegaMorph and said, "Heh, and I thought the gargoyles looked strange." He sat down in a chair and said, "The name's Macbeth, I've heard ye've been havin' an identity crisis."

--

Meanwhile, the marines were keeping lookout after contact with WARDEN had shut down a few minutes ago. One of them was watching the approach from the river when he spotted several objects approaching. "Sir, I think we've got company coming," said the soldier to the lieutenant.

"Get a fix on them, prepare to fire if they prove hostile," said the lieutenant.

The marine nodded and turned back to come face to face with Hyena. "Hey sweetie," she said before stabbing him through with her claws.

The scream got everyone's attention. Matt and Chris ran out into the courtyard to see Hyena and Jackal, Hyena still impaling the marine. "Oh hell..." said Matt, igniting a plasma ball and throwing it.

Hyena chucked the dead marine at the plasma ball, causing a large explosion in midair. "Ooh, it looks like we've got new sport, sis," said Jackal.

The second plasma ball was more on target causing Jackal to stagger. "Come on, ugly," said Matt, making a taunting gesture at Hyena.

"Since you insist," said Hyena as her arm extended forward, similar to a javelin.

Matt smirked, knowingly as Hyena charged him before transforming and flying over her head. "Wow, your aim's worse then your look, and that's gotta be a record," he taunted before spraying a storm of plasma orbs at her.

Chris however had gone hybrid and had tackled Jackal when a mechanical arm grabbed him and threw him aside. He heard Xanatos's voice say, "Hmm, a true alien hybrid, interesting," but when he got his sight back he just saw a mech standing over him.

"Xanatos?" said Chris, "You're helping these guys?"

"I'm afraid you're mistaken," said the robot, which had a video screen showing Xanatos's face, only half of it was mechanical. "I am not Xanatos. You are thinking of my original designer. My name is Coyote."

A crash and a scream of annoyance from Hyena said that Matt had dodged her attacks again. "Your colleague appears to be almost enjoying himself," said Coyote with mild interest.

Jackal had gotten back up. "Stop talking and shoot him. Let's get this done before those gargoyles wake up."

"Very well," said Coyote as he started charging up his shoulder cannons.

"Sorry, I don't take a good picture," said Chris as he broke Coyote's grip and jumped away before he could fire. Chris was about to plunge his fist through Coyote's armor when somebody tackled him from the side. Chris pushed the figure off and jumped up to see a werewolf. "Great, not another one," he said.

Chloe however had ran back after hearing the scream and emerged to see the fight going on. Unfortunately, she also earned the attention of Jackal who currently was not finding the marines much challenge.

"Well, well, what have we here?" said Jackal, "Now here's something I don't get to enjoy often."

Chloe glared and did a passable impression of the damsel in distress. "Oh no, help me," she said dully.

"Don't worry deary," said Jackal in a false sweet voice, "This won't a bit." Suddenly there was a shower of sparks and his left hand fell down to the cobblestones.

Chloe waved her ion staff in the air and said, "What do you know, it really didn't hurt."

Jackal stared from his sparking stump to his twitching hand on the cobbles. "HOW DARE YOU?" he finally managed before a lightning bolt from the transformed Chloe lifted him off his feet.

Meanwhile, Matt had his hands full with Hyena. "I have to admit," said Matt, "this cybrog tech is pretty impressive."

"You've barely seen anything," said Hyena as she curled into a ball and launched herself at Matt.

Matt pulled out his ion staff. "Batter up," he muttered and made a slicing motion as Hyena went by.

When Hyena uncurled, a large gash was in her right leg. "You're gonna wish you hadn't done that," said Hyena as cannons popped out of her arms.

Suddenly Matt's arms were grabbed from behind. "Particularly since you're fighting one against two," said Coyote's voice.

"Oh pants," said Matt and suddenly Coyote let go as a ball of black fire hit his side, leaving a crater in the side. Matt looked to see Megan before taking advantage of the distraction to plunge in his blade as far as it could into Coyote's chassis.

Megan was about to fly off and help Chloe when she was grabbed by the tail. Hyena reeled her in and said, "Looks like we've got another alien freak. I wonder what color her blood is?" She grabbed a good section of Megan's side and started pulling it off, causing her to scream loudly.

Matt tried to go help when Coyote hit him in the side with its fist. "You'll pay for that," said Coyote calmly.

A rumbling however had started. "Nah, I think you guys will actually," said Matt before plugging his ears and shutting his eyes. He had a very good idea what...or who was causing the rumbling and oh yes, the shaking now.

Suddenly several stone blocks from the courtyard were blasted into the air from below. From the hole that was created, NegaMorph flew out, alive with fury. "GET AWAY FROM MY NIECE!" he yelled and fired several laser blasts from his eyes.

Hyena was thrown back so hard she took a chunk out the battlements and kept on going in a flat trajectory. Jackal was not as lucky, being pinned to the wall by the blast next to Wolf, a confused Chris looking from him to NegaMorph and back again. The blast aimed at Coyote went straight through the bot like its armor was rice paper.

"You will leave this castle at once!" demanded NegaMorph.

"And if we don't?" said Coyote.

NegaMorph pointed his right arm at him and several mechanical components popped out of it until it resembled an energy cannon with a fanged mouth at the end. "NEGATRON CANNON!" he shouted and fired a huge blast of negative energy.

Matt managed to get away from Coyote just before a blast hit Coyote dead center, blasting most of his armor and all of his offensive weaponry off. "Holy smeg," said Chloe before clocking the stirring Jackal in the face with a draconic fist

The other members of the Pack didn't look so eager to fight anymore. So it was fortunate for them that a chopper suddenly appeared. Matt, Chloe and Chris turned to see a figure in the chopper. "Oh, great, another one," Matt said and readied a plasma orb.

However, Lobo had different plans. "Team, retreat," he called, "We cannot fight this thing."

"Too right you can't," said Matt, getting ready to toss his orb.

"Uh, Matt," said Chris, "aren't these guys timeline specifics?"

Matt looked over at them and swore before saying, "Get lost before we turn you into make-your-own-idiot sets." He looked up at Lobo, "Get lost and take your trash with you."

Jackal and Hyena quickly boarded the chopper and Wolf brought what was left of Coyote aboard. The chopper quickly flew far away from Eyrie Tower. A minute later, the sun set and the gargoyles sprang to life. Broadway looked around at all the damage and said, "Uh, what did we miss?"

"We had visitors," said Chloe sadly, closing the eyes of one of the dead marines.

NegaMorph glided down and landed in the courtyard. "I think they'll think twice before messing with this place again," he said as his arm returned to normal.

Matt got up, turning back to human with barely noticed difficulty before walking over. "Hey, NegaMorph," he said, seriously.

NegaMorph also turned serious and said, "Matt, I know I've done terrible things, things that can't be forgiven very simply. But I'm willing to try and make up for it, if you'd let me."

Matt looked down to where NegaMorph was offering a hand and looked up to where the bodies of the dead and injured marines were. It could have been alot worse. If NegaMorph hadn't acted, Megan would be among those bodies. He took the hand. "Welcome aboard."

"I hope I'll make worth your while," said NegaMorph.

"I have to know," said Chloe, "What was it that changed your mind?"

"Simple, I remembered I do have something worth fighting for," said NegaMorph, "She just needed to make it more clear."

Matt walked off to call WARDEN to send down a team to get the bodies back to the ship. Goliath put his hand on NegaMorph's shoulder and said, "I may not know you well, but I can tell your heart has settled where it truly belongs."

"I guess so," said NegaMorph, "Er, speaking of hearts, someone may want to check on that Scottish guy back in my room. I think I may have given him a bit of a fright when I came outside."

--

Chris strolled down to find Macbeth staring blankly ahead, a cup of tea shaking in his hand. "Erm...professor?" he said, forgetting he was in hybrid form.

"I don't know what happened," said Macbeth, "I just heard a scream and the fella went ballistic- SWEET MARY, MOTHER OF GOD!" Macbeth jumped backwards when he saw Chris.

Chris looked down on himself. "Sorry about that...oh no," he said, changing back just as Chloe and Matt in dragon form swooped down, ion blades at the ready.

"Where's the fire?" said Matt.

Macbeth grasped the side of his head and said, "I think this is a bit more than I expected."

"Sorry," said Matt as he and Chloe turned back to normal, "You won't need a doctor, do you?"

Macbeth chuckled at that and said, "If I needed a doctor, I'd be dead a long time ago. Now what caused NegaMorph to storm off like that?"

"Some creepy cyborgs attacked the castle. One of em tried to fillet Megan and learnt why that's usually the last thing anyone ever does," said Matt.

"Megan?" asked Macbeth.

"My adopted niece," explained NegaMorph as he came in, "Sorry about that scare I gave you, Macbeth. I suppose you know what it's like when someone you care about is in danger."

"Aye, I do," said Macbeth, a little sadly.

Matt's brain had been trying to get his attention for a bit now ever sense he'd heard Macbeth's name. "You know, its weird, you have the exact same name as that Shakespeare play," he said happily.

Macbeth scowled, "That charlatan? He completely twisted the true story around. Duncan was the real scoundrel. Gruoch would never have considered murdering someone."

Matt laughed nervously. He could hear Draconus laughing his head off in his head. "Erm, you sound like you met the characters…but that's not right...cause they're fake...aren't they? Who knows?" he said starting to gibber a bit before fainting.

Everyone looked down at him. "He'll be fine," said Chloe after a second.

"Uh, you're not actually..." started NegaMorph.

"You lot are not the only ones who are not as you appear," said Macbeth.

Chloe whistled. "I hope I look as good when I'm your age Which would be about...couple of hundred years old?" she said

Macbeth laughed heartily and said, "I hardly reckon you'll live that long, lass. Unless ye dragons really are as long-lived as they say."

"We're only half-dragon and as far as we know we're the first two in Nullspace." said Chloe as Matt came to.

"Well, technically, Kala's one too, at least until Morph can call his- Oof!" The last part was when Chloe pressed down on his chest with her foot.

"Matt tends to speak nonsense when he just wakes up," said Chloe.

"No I don't...ACK MY RIBCAGE!" gasped Matt.

"Ah, let the lad up," said Macbeth, "I doubt anything he tells me would make any real difference."

Matt got up. "Technically if we told you, we'd have to wipe your mind," he said before glaring at Chloe. "You didn't have to step on me, you stupid..." he began and was electrocuted by Chloe.

Macbeth turned to NegaMorph and said, "They're a rather odd bunch, aren't they?"

"Oh yeah, big time," said NegaMorph.

Chloe smiled, "In our job you either act a bit weird or go completely insane." She looked down at the gently smoking form of her brother who was faintly gibbering the song '20 bottles of beer'. "...and in some cases we do both."

"Well, I think I need another cup of tea," said Macbeth as he walked out of the room, "And it looks like ye've got some construction work that needs to be done."

"Yawoll mein general," gibbered Matt before giggling.

"I think Matt can sit it out, unless you want a missile silo installed," said Chloe carefully.

"Ye don't have any more unexpected surprises around here, do ye?" asked Macbeth.

"Well, there's a couple more aliens, smaller and cuter-looking than this guy," said Chris, pointing at NegaMorph, "Plus a pair of gargoyles that used to be aliens and a hovercraft that can transform into a giant robot."

Macbeth sighed and walked off, muttering about modern times. Chris suddenly looked horrified. "WHO'S GUARDING MORPH?" he said

"Guarding? Why would he need guarding?" asked Matt, obviously still not thinking clearly.

"Do you remember when we had the Mythicos ambassador aboard?" said Chris.

Matt suddenly paled. "But the magic kit's still missing," he said panicking.

Chloe looked confused, "So? What harm can he do?"

Suddenly Macbeth came running back, calling for help. Trundling after him was a gigantic Chupy, with Morph riding on his head. "Hey guys, check me out," said Morph, "I'm the Rajah of Puerto Rico!"

When Macbeth ran away, Chris said, "Uh, I better tell him it's ok." He left and Chupy trundled over to Matt, Chloe, and NegaMorph.

"Uh, PlasMorph," said NegaMorph, "I wanted to say I'm sorry for how I've treated you before."

"Are you really sorry?" said Morph suspiciously.

"Yes," said NegaMorph.

"Ok then," said Morph happily.

Matt looked at Morph. "How could you forgive him so easily? Who knows what you had to face while in that portal," he said, not noticing the giant Chupy stalking him.

"He's got a point," said Morph, "I demand tribute." NegaMorph sighed and pulled a chocolate cake from out of his N-mouth and handed it to Morph. "All is forgiven," said Morph and he started snarfing down the cake.

"I don't believe this," said Matt. Seconds later, Chupy swallowed him whole.

Chloe stared for a moment before screaming angrily at both Chupy, who had Matt's feet poking out his mouth, faint screams of 'It's horrible in here!", and Morph who was telling Chupy to give like he was a puppy and not a 6-foot-tall blood-sucking partially-domesticated demon, and at NegaMorph who was laughing fit to burst.

* * *

There's another chapter. NegaMorph is officially back in business and on the good guys' side. I thought it would be interesting for NegaMorph to meet Macbeth, seeing as how Macbeth has such a haunted past. And having NegaMorph throw out the Ultra-Pack was an added bonus. Of course, the Ultra-Pack aren't going to be the only villains in this story. There will be more coming, and soon. So keep an eye out for another update. Please review.


	4. Snake in the Nest

**Voyager Saga**

**Change of Soul**

**Chapter 4: Snake in the Nest**

Taleth stood on the top of the small apartment. In front of him was this 'Eyrie Building' Seleni was next to him. "I say we just go in there," she said, "Nothing can stop us. These guys are stone age in comparison."

"I wouldn't be too sure," said Taleth, "Did you not sense that surge of negative energy the other day? Whatever was behind that was particularly angry at the moment."

"So?" said Seleni annoyed. "Doing this softly-softly touch of yours is weak."

Suddenly Saleni felt her throat being squeezed by a scaly hand. "I think you need a reminder of why I'm the leader," said Taleth, who was in his silver dragon form. He tossed her into a nearby wall, which caused several cracks in it. "Hatchlings are easier to turn if it's voluntary, or have you forgotten that as well?" said Taleth.

Seleni whimpered. "Of course, of course, I'm just saying that there are two Shar-khan there. They could make our plans difficult if they realize who we are," she said.

"Which is why we're going to scope out their base before we make any moves," said Taleth, "Knowing is half the battle."

--

Meanwhile, Matt and Kala were doing some flying training. "You're definitely getting this," said Matt, as the two flew above 5th Avenue. He noticed Kala panting a little bit and grew worried. "Hey, you ok?" he said concerned.

"Just, tired from all this flapping," said Kala, "Can't we take a break?"

"Sure, down there," he said, swooping down to a rooftop. Kala followed and nearly stepped on a little lizard that yelped.

"Saline?" said a voice and a human in a type of combat armor ran out. "Oh, hi, there you are Saline," said the newcomer, greeting Matt and Kala before running over to the little creature that squawked happily before running up his arm.

"Huh, you get that at an exotic pet store?" said Matt.

"You can say that," said the newcomer.

"I wouldn't think a lizard would be very active when it's cold," said Matt.

"Oh, he's partially aquatic, warm blooded. He's a genetic experiment from dimension E-451," said the newcomer, adding, "Oh, where are my manners? I am Janeth."

Matt looked sadly at Saline and said "E-451 was destroyed 3 years ago. The wormhole collapsed without warning. You must have been almost on top of what caused it," he said

"Very nearly got wiped out with it," said Janeth, "I did manage to snag a few of these little guys. They just seem to unique to go to waste. Saline preferred to stay with me instead of the breeding program."

"Weird. I thought something like that would have been publicized on the Infonet," said Matt, suspiciously.

However Janeth seemed too canny to fall into the verbal trap and said smoothly, "I don't know what politicians think."

"So, what brings you to this planet?" asked Kala, "Can't exactly say it's ideal vacation weather at the moment."

"Oh, my crew have stopped here for a break. The empire don't go anywhere near here," said Janeth happily.

Kala said, "It's late. You want to stay with us tonight? It must be miles to where your ship is."

"Wait a sec, Kala," said Matt, "We can't just invite complete strangers to sleepovers. It's possible he could be trying to pull one over us."

Kala glared at Matt and said, "You really learn to be more hospitable to others, Matt." Matt was speechless. "I thought you'd know better. The castle's this way, Janeth," said Kala, taking off while carrying Janeth who smirked at Matt. Matt growled and took off after the two.

--

Matt wasn't the only one to smell a rat from Janeth's explanation. When Matt had been aboard the Maelstrom Star, Chloe had been assigned to a ship that witnessed E-451's demise and she knew that the ship she'd been on had been the only one in the area. "So, you were aboard the NSS Imagias?" she said, suspiciously. "I thought I'd met all the crew. I was aboard for 2 months."

Janeth shrugged and said, "Sometimes there's just that one person you always miss. I bet you could look through your high school yearbook and not recognize one person there even though they've been sitting next to you for several classes."

"We didn't have a yearbook," said Chloe, glaring at him. She walked up and whispered in passing, "Anyway, I was the only human aboard. It was a Powakeena ship."

Janeth frowned to himself. 'She's going to be trouble,' he thought, 'I better get rid of her as soon as possible.'

The rest of the crew and the Manhattan clan weren't as distrusting, greeting Janeth and his companion, the creature Saline, warmly. Matt however didn't make a good name for himself as he took to following Janeth and Kala, who was showing him around, all over the place.

"You need to relax," said Draco, "You can't think everyone stranger than you is an enemy."

"No, but I am getting a pretty bad vibe about this guy," said Matt.

Contrinus smiled. "I think someone's jealous," she said and jumped as Matt glared.

"I am NOT jealous! I just don't trust that guy, something about him...smells wrong."

"Well frankly, something smells wrong about Morph, but no one questions that," said Draco. "That's because no one WANTS to question that," said Matt.

Chip was just as doubtful. "You'll have to find some proof more concrete than just scents if you want to convince anyone," said Chip.

Matt glared and was about to say that stopping him from following Janeth would not LET him gather evidence when the comm went off. It was Wilson. "Boss, we just fould Chloe near the lift. She's out cold. Somebody stunned her...badly."

Matt glared at Draco. "There, proof enough? Chip, you have sensors. Where the hell is that little creep, Janeth?" he said into his comm.

"I'm not sure," said Chip, "My sensors seem mostly built to pick up machines, not organics. I'm not quite sure how to adjust it."

"It worked well enough for them during the Cybertronian war, do it," said Matt, angrily.

"Alright, alright, don't be so pushy," said Chip as he fiddled with his programming a bit, "There, got it, looks like he's on the other side of the castle. And Kala's with him."

Matt glared. "Dammit, do it again. That's impossible. I know he's responsible," he said, his eyes starting to glow red.

"Matt, maybe you should calm down," said Contrinus, "How about we find out what caused Chloe to faint first before we try to accuse someone."

"IT WAS HIM!" yelled Matt angrily, pushing her aside and heading for the door. "...and he's dead meat," he added, drawing his sidearm.

Draco picked him up and said, "Matt, you're being irrational. You need to calm down and think it out. Suppose that Janeth is responsible for Chloe being unconscious, how would he have accomplished this if he was on the other side of the castle from her?"

"I don't know, but let me go so I can beat it outta him," snarled Matt and was shocked as Draco hit him.

"For God's sake...THINK THIS THROUGH!" yelled Draco.

Matt glared back at Draco and said, "Easy for you to say. What if was Chip found unconscious in that elevator?"

Draco considered this for a minute and said, "That depends, you mean Chip as he is now or Chip as he normally is?"

"Any version," said Matt, angrily before calming down. "I want to question him in any case," he said.

"That seems rational enough," said Contrinus, "We ought to do an investigation since there seems to be an enemy lurking among us."

"Good," said Matt and headed for Janeth's location.

Kala however was not impressed at the accusations...especially as Matt punched Janeth as soon as he arrived. "How'd you do it, you sorry excuse for a human?" he said to Janeth, Saline in front of Janeth, snarling angrily at Matt.

Kala got angry herself for a second and as Matt picked Janeth up to punch him again a fireball knocked him over. Kala had thrown it.

"Matt, I can't believe you," said Kala, "When another guy shows up, you get all defensive and think they're up to no good. That is really pathetic."

Matt looked horrified himself. "Kala..." he began

Kala started stomping away from him. "I always knew you were a little crazed," said Kala, "But now I know you're as immature as the next man."

Matt just stared sadly. Janeth got up and looked from the others disapproving stares to their aim...Matt. "Really..." he said and jumped as Matt had to be grabbed by Draco and Contrinus.

The two of them could barely keep their hold on Matt until Goliath came into the room, attracted by the shouting. "What is going on here?" he demanded.

"I'm gonna kill him!" yelled Matt, struggling in Draco and Contrinus's grasp.

Janeth said, "I don't know where he got these accusations. It's stupid. I've been with Kala. Jealousy is so sad," he said and walked by, aiming a smirk at Mat that only he saw.

Matt just barely made it out of Draco and Contrinus's grip when Goliath bellowed "ENOUGH!" That put a stop to Matt's trying to escape, but not to him glaring at Janeth. "I don't know what this fight is about, but I will not tolerate senseless violence here," said Goliath, "If there is internal dispute, it shall be settled before the entire clan."

Janeth sighed. "Look, I understand that Captain Lynch hasn't slept since he arrived. He's obviously tired," he said. Matt glared coldly at Janeth but didn't say anything.

Draco said, "He's probably right, you're tired, Matt. Go get some sleep."

--

When Chloe woke up, it was with a groan. It almost felt like she had a hangover, but she didn't a single alcoholic thing to drink. Matt was there with Dr Willis. "She's awake, captain," said Willis.

Matt came over immediately. "You ok? You remember who did this?" he said.

"Uh, I'm not quite sure," said Chloe, "One second I'm in the elevator and the next I'm here."

"Anyone do anything odd to you earlier?" asked Matt.

Chloe thought for a second and said, "Well, I think I saw Janeth muttering something odd during dinner, but I might have imagined that."

Matt's eyes went solid white from fury. "Got the little weasel. Willis, call Wilson and tell him to get a heavy squad and a mind probe ready. I want answers," he snarled.

Willis was about top do that when Matt said, "Hold that. I got a better idea. Call NegaMorph, time for him to earn his stay."

--

"You want me to want?" said NegaMorph. "Follow Janeth around and sees if he does anything suspicious," said Matt, "You know be a fly on the wall, or spider, or blot, whatever, I want you to tail him."

NegaMorph was not convinced. "Get a spiderbot to do it," he said.

Chloe however stopped him leaving, "Please NegaMorph, what if Janeth is responsible? What if he goes after Megan next?"

NegaMorph's spines stiffened and said, "I suppose you have a point there." He paused at the door and said, "And by the way, I don't like Megan being used all the time to convince me."

Chloe said, "Sorry, but it's true," slightly ashamed. As NegaMorph left, Chloe said, "If it turns out Janeth is innocent, I'm giving you skydiving lessons off the castle...while tied up."

---

It took NegaMorph a while to find Janeth, but he eventually spotted him in one of the business levels of the Eyrie Building. Fortunately, NegaMorph was a natural at blending in with the shadows.

He finally found Janeth in an unused corner of the utility section. He was talking into a hand device. "I'm telling you, Taleth. These guys are gullible. The only one who almost busted me is laid out in her room for the next week and not only is the hatchling halfway to our thinking, but the other one I mentioned is one snap away from turning as well."

NegaMorph's sensitive hearing allowed him to pick up the response through the hand device, "Good work, Janeth. We can prepare to attack the castle at dawn, when the gargoyles are asleep." 'Guess Matt was right,' thought NegaMorph, 'Better warn him and the others.'

Janeth's head whipped round. He had been in the shadows and now NegaMorph got a good look at him. A green anthro earth dragon was there, wearing Janeth's battle gear. His focus suddenly fell on NegaMorph. "Hmm….looks like we got a rat in the basement. What are you doing?" he said, making a wall of earth energy appear in the door behind NegaMorph while advancing on him.

"I might ask you the same question," said NegaMorph as he pulled out his Lockblade. After he had been fully revived, the Lockblade seemed to have modified to his completed soul. It now had a guard that resembled a crescent moon while the Lockmask had shrunk to form a keychain in the shape of a padlock.

Janeth sighed. "Idiot, I'm 254 years old," he said and saw NegaMorph's expression. "What? Dragons live a long time. But...I gotta go. So, bye," he said and sent a blast of earth energy into NegaMorph, knocking NegaMorph into a tank that connected to the plumbing system. Before NegaMorph could get out, Janeth slammed it and use his ion staff to weld it shut, before starting the tank. "Heh, talk about being sent down the tubes," he said, chuckling before walking out.

--

Matt was pacing back and forth in the infirmary. "What is taking him so long? I'd have thought he'd find something by now," he said.

"Hmm, perhaps there isn't anything to find," said Chloe, "and will you cut out that pacing? It's not going to make me feel any better."

"Look, I'll be happy when he gets back...crap," he said as he saw Janeth go by. Janeth looked in at them and, for a second, looked worried before walking off. "Hmm...why's he so shocked?" said Chloe as sunlight began to shine through the window.

--

In the lobby, the reception guard and his mates were exchanging shift with the day shift when 8 people walked in. 6 of them looked like escapees from a sci-fi convention, wearing metal dragon head helmets with white eyes and holding staffs. The lead two however had creepy reptile contact lenses in. "Ah, good morning, I am Taleth and I am here to gain access to the top floor of this building," said the man leading them. The receptionist avoided looking at the woman who had a psychotic stare.

"Um, is this woman with you?" asked the receptionist, "She seems to look a bit unstable."

"Oh, this is Seleni. My second in command. I'm going to ask one more time, unlock the elevator," said Taleth as his men pointed their staffs at the guards, the ends opening slightly with a crackle of blue energy.

"Um, sir, unauthorized weapons are not permitted in this building," said the receptionist, "I'm afraid that if you have any business with Mr. Xanatos, you'll have to leave them here."

Taleth sighed. "Oh well, at least you can say you warned us, if you survive," he said and nodded to his men. The staffs blazed, firing blue bolts that cut down two guards instantly. Taleth, however, sent a psychic burst into the desk, knocking it forward and K.O'ing three more guards. Then Seleni tossed some acid at the elevator doors. They melted apart instantly. Taleth smirked. "Going up," he said before ordering his dragon guards to follow up the other elevator as soon as they could.

--

At the castle, the alarm had started ringing as soon as Taleth's men had opened fire on the lobby security. "What in the name of smeg?" said Matt.

"I think we've got trouble coming our way," said Chloe as she got up. She staggered as the blood rushed from her head.

"Maybe you should wait a bit before joining the fray," said Matt.

Chloe shook her head. "Not a damn chance," she said.

Wilson, Techo, Chip, Kala, and, to Matt's anger, Janeth were all crowded around the elevator. "What's going on?" said Matt.

Wilson said, "Xanatos said some weird dudes just shot up the lobby. They're headed up. Two of em can turn into dragons, like you guys."

"What? How can that be?" said Chloe, "I thought we were me and Matt were the only ones of our kind."

"Well, that applies to Kala too, remember?" said Chip, "Thanks to the same Red Kryptonite that made me into a 10-foot robot. You know, I'm starting to see a few disadvantages to being this tall."

There was a dull thud on the door of one of the elevators and 8 claws poked through before forcing the doors apart. A silver dragon and a dark brown dragoness flew through and alighted on the floor, undisturbed by the selection of guns pointed at them. As the group watched their shapes changed to that of two humans. The man bowed. "I am Taleth. You must be the Captain Lynch I've heard so much about," he said.

"Uh, yes, I am," said Matt, "and I don't know who you are, but you're making a really bad first impression."

"I am Taleth, young one and you are not really who I'm interested in I'm afraid," he said before spotting Kala. "Ah, the hatchling, time to come with us," he said apparently kindly. However the mercs had heard that tone of voice a hundred times and were not convinced.

"Get lost," said Chloe.

"You don't want to stop me," said Taleth, "Her power will become too much for her to control if she does not come with us. Of course, if you disagree with that, you could challenge us for her."

"Damn right I do," said Matt.

Taleth sighed and pulled out an ion staff identical to the one Kala had, right down to the blade color. "As you wish, you know, you don't look fully in control either," he said.

"Careful Matt," said Wilson, "This guy sounds like he's got a lot of experience, not the kind to rush at blindly."

Matt nodded and pulled out his own staff. Taleth smirked as Matt took a defensive stance. "You've been practicing, good," he said and lunged with a slash that nearly knocked Matt over.

Matt retaliated with several thrusts from his staff, all parried by Taleth's, which caused several sparks to leap into the air. Taleth nearly stabbed Matt once and Chloe had to grab Kala to stop her jumping in as well. Matt managed to dodge another slash and actually landed a glancing blow on Taleth's arm. "Oh, impressive, did Mr. Black teach you that?" he muttered to Matt and swept Matt's legs from under him as the merc reacted in shock, aiming his blade at Matt. "Round one to me. I hope your sister's better then you are, hatchling," he said darkly.

"Oh, you won't find her that easy to take," said Matt, "Why don't you see for yourself?"

Seleni was already holding her Ion blade ready as Chloe walked forwards confidently. "So, are all of Taleth's girlfriends as obviously insane as you?" said Chloe idly, pulling out her own blade.

"You barely know what you speak of," said Seleni and gave out a loud warcry before swinging a blow meant to decapitate Chloe.

Chloe ducked it, spinning round Seleni and clocking her on the back of the head with the handle of her blade in passing. Seleni staggered unsteadily and focused on Chloe. "You...BITCH!" she screamed and lunged at Chloe again only for Chloe to lock blades with her own staff.

The two of kept parrying each other, with obviously growing fury. "Whoa, catfight," muttered Chris, "only it's way more scary than entertaining."

He was forced to add deadly to watch too when Seleni tried to melt Chloe's head off, the acid glob nearly hitting Chris instead. He and Wilson watched with horrified curiosity as the globule melted a hole through the floor...and the 12 below that too.

"Ok, not entertaining anymore," said Chris. Suddenly Chloe and Saleni struck with such force, their weapons flew out of their hands. The two stared at the fallen weapons for a few seconds before starting to grab each other's hair. "Then again," said Chris.

Chloe's military training, both her NSC flash training and the training she'd had as Silvia was obviously an advantage as she quickly had Seneni in a painful armlock. "Say uncle?" she said, twisting Seneli's arm.

Taleth smirked. "I think that's a obvious win," he said ignoring Seleni's screams that it wasn't over yet.

"So that means we're tied," said Chip, "So, what now?"

Taleth sighed. "Well, I intended to take the hatchling anyway, Janeth?" he said. Janeth nodded and, before anyone could move, had drawn an ion blade of his own and placed it round Kala's throat. "We will be leaving now," said Taleth simply as everyone aimed at Janeth.

"How?" said Chip as his guns locked on the invaders, "You're not going back in that elevator and it's hundred of feet from the ground."

"Oh please, didn't you see how we got up here?" said Taleth, rudely. "Janeth was one of us from the start. You should trust your captain. Sometimes he's not just jealous," he said.

"Um, I guess I should apologize for saying you were being irrational," said Chip, "But right now, we've got something important to deal with."

"Like I said, we'll be going." said Taleth as Kala was forced over to the group by Janeth.

"I really am sorry about this," he said to her. Saline was squawking sadly. She wasn't sure why he was doing this to Kala who, in her opinion, had been kind to them.

"Matt, I'm sorry," said Kala, "I shouldn't have doubted you. Or called you immature."

"Well, look on the bright side. You'll have alot more fun with us then with him," said Janeth. Taleth began speaking into a wrist comp. "Zaiphan? Bring us aboard," he said. A blue energy began to crackle around Taleth and his friends and Matt realized if they got away it was all over. He lunged at Taleth to the horror of the others and said to the shocked man, "Gotcha," before vanishing along with them.

"Oh, that can't be good," said Techo.

"Ok, we need to find their ship, fast," said Chloe.

"I'll start patrolling the skies," said Chip, "Maybe I'll pick them up with my scanners."

Techo shook his head "I doubt it. They'd have had to be in the atmosphere for the teleporter to work so well...and we'd have noticed a shoge stinking ship," he said.

"Wait a minute," said Chloe, "Back in our first few years as mercenaries, I put trackers into mine and Matt's wrist comps. Mine needs to be replaced, but I think I can still track Matt's."

"I remember that. You had it done after his time of the Maelstrom Star. Said you were sick of the damage bills," said Techo, smirking.

Chloe started fiddling with her wrist comp, "Shouldn't take me too long to find him. As long as there isn't something blocking the signal."

--

It took all day to find the frequency. By the time it was working, the clan had woke up to find the group tensed up, waiting for Techo to find the signal.

"I can believe it would take this long," said Chloe, "How do we know they're not off-world by now?"

"I've been scanning places they could set the ship down. Now I'm trying places you wouldn't expe...ok...gottem. Ok, that's smegging weird," he said as Draco, Contrinus and Brooklyn, having been told where him and Chloe were, came in.

"Did you find them?" asked Brooklyn.

"Um, yeah, but I think we're going to need a jet."

--

Matt came too to a splitting headache...a splitting reminder of why jumping into a teleport beam was a terrible idea. At least he had all his arms and legs. He looked up to see Taleth standing opposite him. "Ah, sleep well?" he taunted. Matt tried to lunge at him, only to find his arms and legs held back by energy bonds. "I'm sorry for those, but I can't have you clawing my eyes out, Shar-khan," said Taleth, smirking at Matt's confusion. "Oh, your all-mighty watcher didn't tell you, such a shame."

"Tell me what?" asked Matt, "What's going on here? Who are you working for?"

"I'm working to better other species you may say. Come on, you and me both know we're better then normal humans. We have abilities other species can only dream about; increased strength, the ability to fly, longer life. I try to...share that," said Taleth.

Matt sighed. "I get it, " he said and Taleth looked surprised.

"Really?"

Matt nodded and said, "You're a smegging nutcase. You remind me of Dr. Kurata."

"A typical response from one who does not understand," said Taleth, "But don't worry, you will."

"Bite me. When the clan and my crew catch you, you won't even reach Kryos," Matt said.

"I highly doubt they'll get here in time," said Taleth as he pressed a button on the wall. Suddenly part of the wall parted to reveal a window, which overlooked the ocean.

Matt just stared. "Oh smeg."

* * *

There's another chapter. Looks like Matt's really over his head this time. What are the Shar-Virk planning to do with him and Kala? Will the others be able to rescue him? What has become of NegaMorph? IS ANYONE GOING TO REVIEW THIS STORY?!? For the answers to the first batch of questions, stay tuned for the next chapter, which should be coming soon. And for crying out loud, will you please review?


	5. Dark Side of a Gift

**Voyager Saga**

**Change of Soul**

**Chapter 5: Dark Side of a Gift**

Kala opened her eyes to find everything a blur. The last thing she remembered had been Janeth grabbing her and dragging her over to the two people attacking the castle. Janeth, she moaned as a great feeling of guilt and stupidity hit her. How could have she been so blind? She should have listened to Matt on the start.

Janeth's voice was heard. "Drink this, you'll feel better. It's just water." A concerned squawk was heard and there was a tingling feeling followed by all her tiredness fading away.

Kala's vision cleared and she saw Janeth standing in front of her, holding a glass of water, Saline on his shoulder. Kala took one glance at her limbs to see that they're tethered by energy bonds. Kala glared at Janeth. "Oh, suddenly you can be trusted," she said coldly.

"Please, just give me a chance," said Janeth.

"I already did and look where I ended up," said Kala icily.

Janeth sighed. "You have no idea how powerful you are. You're better here with people like you," he said, transforming briefly to dragon form to prove his point.

"I already had friends like me," said Kala, "I should have listened to them instead of you."

Janeth sighed and deactivated the bonds before walking to the door. Kala was about to rush him when the door opened to reveal two guards. "I'll leave the drink, comm. me if you need anything," he said before turning to Saline. "You stay keep her company," he said.

Meanwhile, Matt, having realized that he was stuck there for a while had decided that as long as he was going to be miserable, the people guarding him would be miserable. And he was making sure of that by one of his most favored method, a Splitter version of '6 Million Bottles of Beer on the Wall'. He had been at it for about 4 hours by now and the guards were looking like they were going to crack.

Taleth arrived to see pone of the guards being held down by three more. "Please let me just cut out his voice box, just that," sobbed the guard from under the dog pile.

"Hmm...interesting," said Taleth to himself, stepping over the guard and into Matt's cell. "That's the 5th shift you've sent mad. Are you sure you like doing this? Just promise not to cause trouble and you can move into more comfortable quarters like your companion," he said.

Matt stared and then started singing, "10954 bottles of beer on the wall, 10954 bottles of beeeer..."

Taleth rolled his eyes. "I can see why the Empire has a 10,000 credit bonus on your wanted paper if you've been permanently muted," said Taleth.

"Yeah. I don't see why. I have such a good singing voice I always share it with my captors. Sometimes they let me go," Matt said sarcastically before adding, "How do you know me, anyway?"

Taleth seemed surprised for a second. Then he seemed to consider his answer for a minute before he said, "Your reputation has a very widespread radius. Anyone who has knowledge of Nullspace could add up your traits and then know who you are."

Matt however liked to say he had a finely tuned bullshit-ometer and it was wailing at him. "Pull the other one," he said before starting to sing again.

--

Meanwhile, the clan was discussing the battle plan with the crew. "Are ye absolutely sure they're in the middle of the ocean?" asked Hudson.

"Well, not actually underwater," said Techo, "They're actually hovering about a mile over it. But they are pretty far away from any landmass."

Wilson said, "We can use Pelicans to get you guys close without you getting tired. The main trouble will be getting in once we get there. Ships that size are floating fortresses."

Chloe banged the wall, leaving cracks. "No, I am not leaving Matt or Kala with that sadistic nutcase," she said, angrily.

"And we won't," said Goliath, "We shall not leave clan in the hands of enemies."

"Hey, we're clan now," said Morph, "Does that mean we get to wear matching jackets?"

"Don't push it," said Chip.

Techo looked up from the computer he'd been at. "Oh hell, got a match for the ship silhouette," he said. "It was seen 3 years ago, taking on 6 combine Dreadnaughts...and winning."

Chloe groaned and said, "Great, we're dealing with professional space pirates and all we've got are Pelicans and Sparrowhawks."

"Hey, you still have me," said Chip, "I'm my own fighter ship."

"Problem, the clan won't be able to glide very long, not over the Atlantic," said Techo.

Suddenly the group heard the sound of jet engines outside. "Oh, what now? More invaders?" asked Techo.

"No," said Lexington, "I think these are friends."

The mercs ran out to see a robotic gargoyle and a cybernetic one landing. "Ok, who are these guys?" said Chloe. Thanks to Janeth, the gang were not in a trusting mood.

"Comrades," said Goliath as he approached the cyborg. He grasped arms with him in a warrior's handshake and said, "Coldstone, how was your hunting?"

"Bad, I'm afraid," said the cyborg, "It would seem the rumors were erroneous. As usual."

"Well, least we don't need to do any shooting," said Techo, the group lowering their guns. Chloe looked at them. "So...who are you?" she said, walking forward.

"I am named Coldstone," said the cyborg, "and this is my love, Coldfire."

The fully robotic gargoyle nodded in greetings and said, "You must be the aliens we have heard tales about."

"Well, Wilson and Techo are human. I...well, I'm technically human," said Chloe.

"I guess that also applies to me," said Chris. "The real aliens here are Draco, Chip, Morph, Contrinus, and Stitch. Of course, Morph and Stitch are the only current aliens here."

The two cybergoyles looked confused. "It's a long story," said Goliath, "Draco and Contrinus have gargoyles like us while Chip has become a larger robot. But we do not have time for longer explanations. We need your help."

Chloe nodded, "Some jerk attacked the castle and made off with my brother and...another member of our crew."

Coldstone's eyes narrowed. "I understand," he said, "you require our help in rescuing your brother and clanmate."

"Uh, yes," said Chloe, "But 'clanmate's' not the word I would use."

"Yet," muttered Wilson, only to get kicked in the shin.

We would gladly help with this rescue," said Coldfire, "Enemies of friends are enemies to us. Only we need to know who it was that kidnapped them."

"Dragons." said Chloe simply, adding quickly, "Evil ones, not good ones," in case she'd have to use her other form later.

The two cybergoyles looked surprised. "I thought Oberon's Children hunted them all down millennia ago," said Coldstone.

"Believe me, they're probably not local," Chloe said.

"And where is their stronghold?" asked Coldfire.

"Erm, there's the hard bit, out in the Atlantic on a hovering ship." said Chloe, rubbing the back of her head nervously.

The two cybergoyles exchanged glances. "Like she said, not locals," said Techo.

--

The guard sighed with relief as Matt finally gave the final verse of his song through. However he screamed when Matt said, "One more time..." and started from scratch. Seleni found the guards sobbing on each others shoulders.

"It would seem the Traveler requires some... additional persuasion," said Seleni. She took out a compact mirror and used it to apply acid green lipstick to her lips. She grinned and told the guards, "Move aside, boys. This requires a woman's touch."

Matt stared as Seleni came in. "Hey, if this is a regular kidnapping, we don't start psychological torture till tomorrow," he said to her.

"Oh, I don't think you'd want to wait too long for this," said Seleni. Before Matt could ask what she meant, she started unclipping the armor from her arms.

"OH DEAR GOD, MY EYES!" shrieked Matt. "I'LL STOP SINGING IF THAT'S WHAT YOU WANT!"

Seleni could hear the guards cheering outside, apparently hailing her quick victory. "Oh, it's not just the singing," said Seleni, "I was hoping I could put a few more thoughts into your head." She removed her combat boots as she spoke.

Matt made a few weird faces before his eyes rolled up into his skull and he fainted. Seleni wasn't that impressed at this reaction, especially when Matt started snoring.

"Pity, I had barely gotten started," said Seleni, "Then again, who says I have to stop now?"

Seleni sighed and held Matt's nostrils until he woke up to be face to face with her. "Oh dear god," he said, before adding, "Man, you're ugly."

Seleni frowned and said, "That's not very polite. Don't you have any good tastes in women?" She thought for a bit then said, "Oh, I get it, you prefer the exotic." She shifted into her dark brown dragoness form and started moving her hands to the clasps of her torso armor.

Matt gibbered in terror. "I'm spoken for," he finally said. He heard Draconus laughing his head off and said out loud, "Oh, shut up!" making Seleni jump

"Oh, so you do care for Kala," said Seleni, her muzzle twisted to a seductive grin, "Tell me, do you have thoughts about her. And I don't mean the romantic smooching under moonlight. I mean, do you have any thoughts about this?" Before Matt could shut his eyes, Seleni let the armor on her upper torso fall away, leaving her standing with just her lower body armor and her bra.

"Oh dear lord," he managed before shutting his eyes and bashing his head on the headrest of his restraint. "Please pass out, I wanna pass out," he muttered before stopping. "No, scratch that, SELENI pass out," he gibbered, not wanting to know what Seleni might do to him if he was out cold.

"Has it not occurred to you that if you joined us, you'll be able to have Kala as much as you want?" said Seleni, finding Matt's denial amusing, "In fact, not just Kala, any female you want. Harems aren't that uncommon among the Shar-Virk."

"CAUSE I AM NOT INTERESTED IN YOU, YOU NUTCASE!" yelled Matt, turning dragon unconsciously from sheer anger...and partial temporary insanity

Seleni grinned wider and said, "Ooh, you're even cuter with scales. But you look so tense. Perhaps you'd be able to relax without all that armor." She reached for the clasps of Matt's armor.

Matt glared and blasted her across the cell with a burst of plasma fire. "You look a bit undercooked, babe," he said annoyingly.

As Seleni got back up, Matt said, "Hey, aren't you worried your boyfriend might catch you cheating with me?"

Seleni hissed and went rigid as a voice said, "She doesn't have one. She's a free spirit, you may say. Seleni, I told you not to try anything yet." It was Taleth.

"How long were you there?" said Matt.

Taleth sighed, "Not very long. Did you know you scream like an Avalarian dragonfly?"

Matt looked shocked and said, "You've been to Avalar?"

Taleth coughed. "Once...a few centuries ago. You seem to have taken to your form quite well, I may add," he said.

"I might consider that a compliment," said Matt, "But I don't think it's one worth accepting. Just leave me to my solitude."

"What? You don't want to talk a little more?" said Taleth, "Or perhaps Seleni should take off the last of that armor." As Seleni grinned and reached for her waist, Taleth commented, "You know, I never tire of watching men eventually submit to her."

Matt gulped. "I like to talk," he said desperately.

"That's better," said Taleth, "You know, Seleni, I think he was actually a few seconds away from a nosebleed."

Matt was gibbering in a mix of human and splitter at this point.

Taleth had a chair brought in and sat down. "So, I suppose we should talk about your future. You realize you and me, we're alot different from those...humans. You stopped being human the day you and Miss Lynch arrived in Nullspace."

"I think Mr. Black said something about that," said Matt, glad to be allowed to have his testosterone level return to normal levels, "But I thought these dragon forms where from when me and Chloe got exposed to the Anarchic Amulet's magic and it mixed with our experiment forms."

"Oh please. That just accelerated your change. The ancients used us years ago. Mr. Black is using you as his puppet. But I am nobody's puppet," said Taleth.

"Puppet? Me? I think I'd know if I was being controlled," said Matt.

"Please. I didn't until my eyes were opened. The Atlanteans deserved all they got," said Taleth before glaring into Matt's eyes. "I want to speak to your other," he said.

"Oh no, not gonna happen," said Matt, "I prefer to keep the scruple-less psychopath locked away in my head, thank you very much."

Taleth sighed and grabbed Matt's forehead before sending a psychic pulse into Matt's head. "I was from A-001, your blocks won't work," he said.

Matt's eyes closed and Draconus opened them. "Is there a reason for this...temporary appearance?" he said, flexing his dragon claws. "Aw, you even left the dragon form in place," he added sarcastically

"Yes, there is a reason," said Taleth, "I'm here to offer you a longer term control. It's Draconus, isn't it?"

"Well, I kinda like my position honestly. I prefer to take control honorably. I won't take short cuts..." said Draconus, shocking both Matt and Taleth.

"You are aware that if you joined with us, there'd be less hindrances to what you want to do," said Taleth.

"I don't care. I may like to kill and destroy, but not whole planets. Yeah, I know what you got in mind, Taleth," said Draconus before closing his eyes and letting Matt back into control.

"You heard the sociopath...get lost." said Matt weakly

"Very well, but you know you will give in at some point," said Taleth as he got up and headed towards the door. He turned to Seleni and said, "Perhaps you could finish that little strip tease in my quarters later.

"You are major league sick, worse then Ghoulwyrm and Splicer in a single person," said Matt, looking ill.

Taleth raised an eyebrow. "Ghoulwyrm? I haven't heard that name in ages. Is he still around?" he asked.

"Yeah, you know that sadistic little madman?" said Matt

Taleth laughed and said, "I think we both know 'little' isn't a good adjective to use with Ghoulwyrm. And yes, we've had... business with each other in the past."

Matt glared. "Now I'm definitely not joining you, take your lies and go," he said coldly.

--

Kala was getting bored inside her cell. She did not have Matt's annoying streak, which was something the guards were grateful for and she was rapidly running out of things to do. Saline was trying to entertain her a bit, showing off her species' ability to generate lightning bolts, which appeared green. Now, however, the small creature was laying down, bored.

"Ugh, there is nothing to do in here," moaned Kala and she thumped her hand against a wall. Suddenly, a panel flipped out where she struck her hand and a computer terminal was revealed. Kala stared at it and said, "Hmm, this could be my way out of here. Or if not, I can at least play Minesweeper."

The computer suddenly beeped. "Scanning...log recorder online...select entry," chimed the computer and a list of dates and what looked like where the relevant log entries were recorded were displayed. One caught Kala's eye. It was marked two years ago and the location said E-451.

"Hmm, that'd put just when the wormhole collapsed," said Kala. She had grown more supscious of Janeth recently, now thinking that everything he had told her was a lie. "Let's see what the real truth is behind this," said Kala as she selected the log.

The log fizzled and Janeth's voice issued from the console, getting Saline's attention. "...The weapon test took place this morning. I've never seen anything like it. The wave it created was easily a mile high and went round the planet twice. I went down with some guards today..." the log died but a second log, dated a day later was visible.

"Wave?" asked Kala as she selected the second log.

Janeth's voice came on immediately. He sounded sickened. "There's nothing left. Dust from the underwater impact polluted the seas to a toxic sludge and there are no land survivors. Both me and Taneth have agreed that Seleni's weapon idea works, but at too high a cost to be used as anything but a persuasive measure. On another note I found some kind of egg today in some shallows, a survivor according to the ship doctor A.I." The log terminated. Saline had scrambled up Kala's shoulder to listen and made a confused squawk.

Kala blinked in confusion and said as the log ended, "Saline, I think those guys are responsible for the destruction of your home planet."

Saline wailed and shocked Kala angrily. She went over to the corner and went under Janeths bed, her eyes visible, glaring.

Kala rubbed her shocked shoulder and said, "I know it sounds harsh, but I think it's the truth. Haven't you wondered how Janeth just happened to be there when your homeworld was destroyed?"

Saline growled angrily from under the bed, but no further tazer shocks came. The door to the quarters opened and Janeth walked in. "Oh, you're still up..." he said and stopped, spotting the computer still on. "What have you been doing?" he said angrily

"Well, if you don't want me on the computer, you should have given me a book to read," said Kala, "But then again, you learn so much more on from the computer."

Janeth looked around. "What did you do with Saline? Saline?" he called before seeing Saline under the bed. "There you are. What did she tell you?" he said reaching to get her out.

Janeth suddenly jerked his hand back, with Saline clamping her jaws around his index finger. Kala watched Janeth wave his hand around, swear, and get zapped by Saline. "Boy would Matt love to see this," said Kala.

Saline finally let go and scrambled over to Kala, glaring at Janeth. "You...foolish hatchling," he said to Kala. "You had to go tell her. I could have kept her safe and in luxury," he said, grabbing Kala.

"All innocence has to end sometime," said Kala. Janeth quickly found what Kala meant when she shoved her knee into his crotch, hard. Janeth let out a squeaky groan and tumbled over backwards, going into a fetal position. "Funny how that works so well on males, isn't it?" said Kala as she picked up Saline.

The two guards that were usually there had obviously been dismissed by Janeth as nobody was there. Kala looked down at Saline. "You wouldn't happen to know where the brig is, do you?" she said. If Matt got loose, it would just be a matter of time before Taleth let him go due to the sheer mayhem Matt would generate.

Saline made a chortling sound in her throat and hopped out of Kala's hand. She quickly started moving down the corridor. Kala found that she had no need to slow down for the lizard creature. In fact she had trouble keeping up with the little creature. There was a green flash behind a corner and Kala turned the corner to see two guards out cold and twitching. Unfortunately, the brig behind them was deserted, though a gibbering third guard was on a table trying to dodge Saline's bolts of lightning.

Kala quickly went to the different cell doors and asked at each of them, "Matt, are you in there?"

"The singer?" said the guard, flinching at Matt's name. "He got taken away, up to the bridge. Please don't bring him back. When he went, he was planning a song called 'Row Your Boat'. He said there were 4000 verses."

"Don't worry about that," said Kala, "I don't plan on ever coming back to this ship." She picked up Saline, allowing her to get a better shot at the guard who was then knocked out, and quickly left the brig.

--

Meanwhile, several craft were heading towards the aliens' ship. Among them were a few Pelicans, an alien-looking hovercraft, and a pair of cybergoyles.

Chloe looked at a view of the ship. It was huge, looking like some kind of spiked monstrosity. Several small dots, possible fighters could be seen circling it. "Well, they definitely came prepared," she said concerned.

"We better be pretty precise with our attacks," said Techo, "Does anyone have any questions about the battle plan?"

"That ship's gotta have huge shielding. The Bladestorm's MAC gun would struggle with it," said Wilson.

Techo said, "I bet it can only be geared to stop certain things...LOOK!" he said, showing one of the small vessels pass through a blue pulse that appeared around it briefly. "That's our way in," said Techo.

--

However, Taleth didn't seem very worried. The bridge of his ship was a hive of activity and four guards were standing around Matt, who was in energy bonds. Matt was glaring at Seleni who kept smiling at him. "Does she have to be here? And why the heck am I here anyway?" said Matt.

Taleth chuckled and said, "I thought you'd like to see your friends for one last time."

"Oh, what makes you so sure you'll beat them?" said Matt, "I doubt you've ever fought gargoyles before. And they've got a Cybertronian." Taleth raised an eyebrow. "Well, he's not Megatron-scale, but he's still pretty tough."

Taleth sighed. "I've faced alot worse then a bunch of mutants and misfits," he said before nodding to a guy at the control console. "Arm Farzia turrets for anti-air spread and launch 6 fighters to eliminate them. NOTHING gets aboard."

--

As the group approached, it looked like rows of spines were activating. Suddenly a hail of yellow bolts, larger versions of those fired by the guards' staffs from earlier began shooting out, aided by similar fire by several ships flying out from hatches in the ship.

"Time to scatter," said Chloe as she shifted to her dragon form and jumped out of the Pelican she was in, followed closely by the gargoyles.

The Pelicans scattered as well, one being too slow and was blown in half by one of the fighters. Chip was doing better, but the blasts were doing more then just dent. "We've got to get inside before we're shot to...oof," he said. The shield was almost solid, like hitting a brick wall. Chip stamped on it and took off again, just in time to avoid a fighter.

--

Meanwhile, Kala was trying to find the bridge. Apparently, she took a wrong turn as she found herself in the ship's shield generator room.

The generator itself was a huge ball of energy surrounded by several rings that were spinning around it. Saline made a whistling noise, staring up entranced. Kala was also impressed and was fiddling in her pockets when she heard a click behind her. The shock made her force a stick out of her pocket onto the floor where it rolled under the generator. "Taleth would like to see you," said the leader of the 8 or so guards.

Shortly, Kala was at the bridge, though not in the way she had wanted. Taleth was sitting in the command seat, Janeth was standing next to him. Kala looked up to see the battle raging just outside, as she watched, the second Pelican dropship exploding. "Your friends don't seem to be doing so well," said Taleth, "But then again, that's exactly what I wanted."

Kala tried to lunge at him and was knocked to her knees when one of the guards cracked her across the back of the head. Matt, who was watching, yelled various abuse at Taleth, finally saying, "You're dead meat."

"Actually, I believe you two are the actual dead meat," said Taleth, "Since you can't be persuaded, you must be terminated. But just for curiosity's sake, let's take a peek at Kala's other personality."

Two of the guards pushed Kala to her feet and, just like he did at the cell with Matt, placed his hand on Kala's forehead, a surge of energy making her scream. Matt also yelled; an extremely draconic roar. When Kala's eyes opened, they were glowing a bright purple in color. Matt stiffened in anticipation. In his experience, having purple where green should be is never a good sign. "Where am I? Who are you?" said 'Kala' in a cold calculating voice that chilled Matt's blood.

"You are among your own kind," said Taleth, "We've just been having difficulties in... 'persuading' your other side."

"And you are?" said 'Kala'.

"I am Taleth and these are my comrades, Seleni and Janeth. And what would your name be?" asked Taleth.

"My... name is- Kai..." Suddenly she started twitching randomly. "Urg...Can't...hold...on...much...longer..." she said.

Taleth smiled. "Don't worry...we'll talk again." he said. Suddenly the purple glow faded, revealing Kala's green eyes. She immediately broke down in tears.

Matt finally got free and ran over to her. Taleth shook his heads at the guards, telling them to stay put. "It's ok," said Matt soothingly.

"How cute," said Seleni, "A little pair of love birds. Shall we dispose of them?"

"Matt, yes, but not so with Kala," said Taleth, "We'll see if we can coax Kai out to assume full control. Guards, you know what to do."

The guards leveled their staffs at Matt and got ready to fire. Taleth stared into Matt's eyes. "Such a shame, Draconus, that you were so foolish."

Suddenly, the room shook everyone to the floor at the same time that a deafening explosion was heard. Matt was up first, grabbing a staff weapon and firing it at the only guard that got up. He grabbed Kala's hands and fled out the bridge. Taleth got up next and yelled "WHAT IN ATLANTIS'S SMOKING RUIN WAS THAT?"

A technician got up to see a readout, "Explosion in shield generator room 3...shields over docking bay 2 are down...boarders detected."

--

Inexplicably, an explosion blew out part of the ship. At the same time, the shield went down. "Their defenses are down!" called Chip, "Let's get them!" He and the cybergoyles quickly flew towards the breach.

Several guards were picking themselves up in that section of the ship when Chip and the cybergoyles landed. One of them was in a great sniping position to ruin Chip n co's day when a draconic hand grabbed his staff and rammed it into his face. Chloe twirled the staff in her hands and fired a burst just behind the other guards, knocking them down. "Nice," she muttered.

"Let's find Matt and Kala and get out of here," said Chip, "I don't want to deal with the elite grunts. Coldfire, think you can melt us a shortcut?" Coldfire nodded and blasted the doors out of the docking bay.

--

Taleth looked at the various readouts. More boarders were swarming the ship, mostly gargoyles. "Well, Seleni, dear. It must be your birthday. You get to use your precious weapon, if they don't surrender," he said.

--

As Coldfire melted through the third wall in their way, a message started blaring out of the intercoms and the exterior communicator. "Attention intruders and invaders," said Taleth's voice, "You are ordered to cease, desist, and surrender immediately. If you don't, we have no choice but to unleash our most powerful weapon. This weapon is a highly powerful repeater beam which will atomize your ships on contact. But they won't be the main target. The beam will go down to the ocean floor and burn its way through the crust until it sets of a volcanic eruption of cataclysmic proportions. This will result in a tidal large and powerful enough to sweep over the entire planet, obliterating anything in its wake." Matt stopped to listen as Taleth continued, "...you will surrender to my staff or I will fire this weapon with a lot of pleasure, if only to remove some troublesome thorns."

"You'd destroy an entire planet just to get rid of us?" said Matt, his voice thick with disbelief and outrage.

"Only the surface," said Taleth shrugging, having heard Matt on the security camera, "I'm sure evolution shall repopulate the land eventually."

"Don't be so shocked, Matt," said Kala coldly, "They've already done this to Saline's homeworld and who knows how many others."

Chloe and co however also had a similar approach. "That asshole. Chip, have you any ideas how we can disable this gun?"

"Well," said Chip, "I would try to hack into the system and disable the programming, but this Cybertronian body is too large to squeeze through any computer monitor. But, I'd guess such a powerful device would require its own generator, otherwise the ship would drop out of the sky every time it fired."

"Good, let's go fry it," said Chloe simply.

Meanwhile, Matt and Kala were being cornered by the guards at another part of the ship. Matt was to be executed and Kala was to watch, in hope that the despair it would inspire would make it easier for her to corrupt.

"So, I'm for the plank, mateys?" said Matt, making Kala laugh a bit despite the situation. Matt continued, "And now...my swan song." The reaction to this was quite impressive as two guards instantly broke down in tears and the rest all looked terrified.

Suddenly, one of the guards said, "Wait a minute, if we shoot him in the neck, it'd shut him up for good. And if it kills him in the process, it'd still be following Taleth's orders.

Matt and Kala gulped. "Erm...you do realize you're working for a sadistic wacko?" said Matt.

"How dare you insult the great Taleth!" shouted one of the guards, anger making him forget his dread at hearing Matt sing, "He is a far more superior being than you can ever imagine."

"Why does that sound so familiar?" asked Matt to himself.

The guards readied their staffs and were about to fire when the door behind them exploded outwards and a welcome sight greeting Matt and Kala. Brooklyn was standing there with a smoking blaster in his hand. Sata was behind him, cleaning some blood off her katana and Broadway was busy trying to crush the guards' guns to useless scrap metal. The guards backed up. One was about to fire but was knocked out when Matt thumped him on the back of his head. The other turned only to be stunned in the back by Brooklyn. The last guard ran for it.

"Glad to see you guys made it here," said Matt, "How did you find us?"

Brooklyn shrugged. "Luck, to be honest. We're trying to find the power source to Taleth's weapon."

Matt nodded and took the staff off Broadway. "You wanna be careful about crushing these. They might explode."

--

Meanwhile, Chloe, Chip, Coldstone, and Coldfire had worked their way towards the repeater beam's reactor. They were able to detect from the large amount of energy it was building up. It was difficult work because of the several guards, but the weapons installed in Chip and the cybergoyles' bodies made it simpler.

Chip looked at the reactor itself. It was basically a huge version of the energy crystals used in the NSC capitol ship main guns, but many times purer. His sensors were off the scale as they tried to measure the output.

"Ugh, it's giving me a processor-ache just trying to grasp how much this thing's building up," said Chip.

"Can you stop it?" asked Chloe.

"I'll try, but I'm not familiar with this type of technology," said Chip.

An energy bolt exploded between Choe and Chip as more guards ran in, firing rapidly. "STOP THE INTRUDERS OR SELENI WILL HAVE OUR HEADS!" yelled their leader.

"I can't hack this thing and fight those guys at the same time," said Chip, "You guys think you can keep them busy?"

A blast nearly blew Chloe's head off. "Easier said then done!" she yelled

"Allow us to help," said Coldstone as he activated the blasters in his forearms and opened fire.

The crystal buckled under the energy fire and cracks began to appear. It finally cracked in half with a sound like a cannon shot. A blast of energy shot out, knocking everyone down to the floor.

Chip was fortunately able to land on his side this time so he was able to stand back up quicker. He glanced at the reactor and said, "I wish you hadn't done that."

"Hey, he stopped the weapon from firing," said Chloe.

"Yes, but since he's destabilized the crystal, it's going to explode now. And based on how much energy it was generating earlier, I don't want to be anywhere near it when it does."

A voice said, "Alert...reactor breach detected...all hands evacuate at once."

Chloe glared. "Way to go," she said dully.

"I think now would be a good time to leave," said Chip as the crystal started giving off sparks of energy.

"I concure," said Coldstone as he and Coldfire activated their rockets.

Matt and co wasted no time as soon as the alarm began ringing. "Which way?" gibbered Matt.

"We should go this way," said Sata pointing, "It's the way we came in here." The group quickly ran through a door and headed down a corridor. And just when they had gotten to a 'fork', a loud blast rocked the ship. Apparently, one Sparrowhawk out there decided to take a potshot. When the smoke cleared, the gargoyles had already left and Matt and Kala couldn't tell where they went.

Matt tried to wave the smoke away to see where he was. At the end of the corridor was the hole that the Sparrowhawk fighter had made. Unfortunately, Janeth, in his dragon form, was standing in the way.

"Oh, great," said Matt, "Well, at least I can have a little payback before I get out of this crazy place."

"Save some for me," said Kala.

Janeth glared. "I can't let you leave," he said, making a barrier of earth energy block the hole. "Bring it on," said Matt, readying a couple of plasma balls.

Saline surprised everyone suddenly by jumping down and running towards Janeth, making chirping noises. Janeth stared down at her, making a few cursory glances at the two.

"Ok, I know that these guys are responsible for wrecking Saline's homeworld, but I think I'm missing something here," said Matt.

Janeth glared. "If I hadn't cared, Saline would have been left on her world," he said scathingly before adding, "She wants me to let you go...and she wants to come along too, Miss Kai- sorry, Miss Kala."

Matt and Kala looked both surprised. "Whoa," said Kala, "I'd never think that..."

Matt cleared his throat loudly and said, "I know this is one of those special emotional moments, but can we keep it short since this ship's gonna become one big firecracker?"

Janeth glared before lowering the energy field. "Get lost, before I change my mind, and Miss Kala, you'd better look after her," he said, moving aside.

"I will," said Kala as she picked up Saline.

"But I doubt this means you'll be going easy on us if we ever meet again," said Matt.

"Hardly," said Janeth.

Matt shrugged as Janeth turned back to human to say farewell to Saline and hit him on the head. He saw Kala and Saline's group glare. "Hey, least he won't be shouted at too much if it looks like we kicked his ass." A distant explosion got his attention. "Time to go."

As Matt and Kala transformed to dragon mode and flew out, Taleth and Seleni appeared from around a corner. "Well, this has been a complete failure," said Seleni.

"Yes, we had badly underestimated those two and their companions," said Taleth, "Next time, we will make sure that the latter won't be a factor." Then the two of them grabbed the unconscious Janeth and flew out of the ship.

--

The gang had finally made it back to the castle, with the help of fresh Pelican transports sent down from the Bladestorm. Taleth's ship had belly-flopped into the Atlantic, losing power as secondary systems catastrophically failed. Matt was being half crushed by a hug from Chloe. "Can't...breathe," said Matt and both of them yelped as a voice said,

"Yeah, Chloe, please don't strangle your brother."

They whirled around to see two very familiar figures; a guy in a black business suit and black sunglasses and a robotic phantom wearing a cloak made of computer screens. Matt was about to tell the others to watch out when he noticed everyone was frozen. Mr. Black smirked, "We don't want interruptions so this is just between us...ok?"

"Ok, you guys have some big-ass explaining to do," said Matt, "What was up with those guys? How comes they can transform into dragons. Where'd they get the ion blades? What the heck is a Shar-Khan?"

Mr. Black sighed. "YOU are Shar-Khan, Mr. Lynch...and your sister. When you went to Avalar and Striker changed you, didn't you wonder why you adopted to the body so quickly?" he said in a tone of voice one might use for a young child.

"I kinda thought that was because I gradually went into the process instead of all at once," said Matt.

"Oh, Striker could have mutated you as fast as Avarona did Sonya, but surely you wondered what 'gift' we received from the Avalarnian government was?" said Mr. Black.

Chloe was glaring at Matt. "I knew you falsified that report," she said angrily.

"Ok, ok, I may have held some things out, but it was only to keep the NSC from colonizing that world."

Chloe huffed and said, "And you got ticked when Draco and Chip kept quiet about Mantichrome."

"Hey, that's different," said Matt, "What happened on Avalar's not gonna come haunt us here." Mr. Black and Cydra looked at each other and Matt turned to look at them. "It's not, is it?"

Mr. Black said, "I did say you were there early. You were both supposed to go there at some point anyway to be trained to control your darker sides. However, Miss Lynch's time as Silvia means she does not need to go..."

"Huh?" said Matt.

"Chloe is able to overcome her potentially evil urges thanks to NegaMorph befriending her. He brought the best out of the worst of her," said Cydra.

Matt made a mental note to buy whatever gear NegaMorph wanted as soon as he turned up. "What about me?"

Mr. Black smirked and said, "Get ready for an extended vacation," he and Cydra vanishing as Matt and Chloe both lunged at him. When Matt and Chloe landed on the ground, they immediately noticed it was not the floor of the Xanatos' living room.

Mr Black was being glared at by Cydra as Matt and Chloe got back up. The room they were in was obviously of ancient design, being seemingly made from the crystalline element the ancients favored. "This is a really bad idea, Azuth," said Cydra.

Mr. Black's face twitched slightly. "I wish you wouldn't call me that in front of mortals," he said. Cydra didn't technically have a face, but if he did, it would be smirking.

Matt and Chloe walked to a window and gulped. The outside was a kaleidoscope of chaotic colors...the A-001 barrier. "Why're we here?" said Chloe, for the first time both her and Matt feeling truly frightened, the barrier had a chilling reputation.

"Since the Shar-Virk are going to be your recurring enemies, you'll need to know how they, and you, became what they are now," said Cydra.

Mr. Black nodded. "It begins a few years ago. The council...our masters had ordered facilities like this shut down..." he began and stopped as Matt interrupted.

"What is this place?" he said, walking over to a window into a room where two mechanical arms with injectors on the ends were motionless. "If I didn't know better I'd say this was a gene therapy lab," he said.

"In a sense, that's what this place was," said Cydra, "People who've somehow left your world would end up at one of these facilities. They would then be given the power of dragons."

Matt and Chloe looked into the room again as the two ancients carried on. "I know what you are thinking...if this was being deactivated how did you end up in it?" said Mr. Black, "Perhaps you should see, Cydra...would you run the security record please?"

Cydra nodded and extended one arm to the wall and pressed a protruding gem on it. Immediately, the room became bathed with bright and colorful light.

When the light cleared the room looked cleaner and was better lit. The previously darkened consoles were lit up, clicking and beeping methodically. Two figures could be seen walking between consoles. One was wearing white clothing and was under a console, pulling out pieces of crystal. The other was clearly Cydra. "Come on, Azuth...all work and no play. You don't have to rush this. We know that the other end of the portal's in a museum exhibit. It's not being activated any time soon," said Cydra

"Better safe than sorry," said Azuth, "We don't want to risk anyone on the other side accidentally activating it."

"Oh, what are the chances of that?" said Cydra.

"For heaven's sake, usually I'd agree, but those idiotic demons earlier damaged the safety programming, look," said Azuth, pulling out a crystal that had been almost broken in half.

Cydra nodded. "Yeah, but their faces were priceless when the defense cannons reactivated," he said chuckling.

"But the damage they've done was extensive enough," said Azuth, "The portal's securities will be much weaker and its failsafe programs will be nonfunctional until we repair them. Well, at least it's in a museum. I doubt it's a touch and feel display." He pressed a button. "Computer, status of shutdown."

The console beeped and said, "Genetic resequencers 1 through 5 decommissioned and genetic materials incinerated. Manual decommission of resequencers 6 through 10 required due to circuitry damage."

"Cydra, would you mind patching up your fellow machine?" said Azuth.

For the first time, Cydra looked annoyed. "I thought I made it clear to you. While my body is completely robotic, I do have a complete mind and spirit. Therefore, I'm not to be compared to common machines constantly."

"Look, just fix this, ok? We don't know what this thing might decide to do while damaged," said Azuth.

As if on cue, several sections of the console turned red. "Alert...manual activation of portal 2 alpha detected...two incoming subjects."

Azuth pressed a button. "Override, they are to bypass the system," he said. The reaction however was obviously not the wanted one. "Error...Override system damaged...unable to execute. Proceeding with resequence."

"Cydra, do something!" yelled Azuth.

Several wires came out of Cydra's sleeves and plugged into various parts of the computer. "I'm trying," said Cydra, "But several command circuits have been severed. I can't control it all!"

The computer was apparently running a practiced response now. "Incoming travelers...all medical teams to stand by." At the same time there was a glow from the room where the mechanical arms had been. Azuth ran over to see two teenagers sprawled in the room. They were apparently ok as the girl immediately started yelling at the teenage boy, something about 'do not touch signs existing for a reason'

"Of all the boneheaded things you've done in the past, this excedes them all!" shouted the girl, "All sorts of artifacts in that museum that have 'Do Not Touch' signs and you pick to touch one that's actually a portal to some other dimension!"

"Not necessarily, maybe it's like that film, Stargate...OW!" said the boy, wincing when the girl hit him.

Matt and Chloe, who'd been watching this, felt like ghosts, especially when Azuth and the past Cydra had walked through them sometimes. "It's us..." said Matt numbly and winced as who was obviously Past Chloe hit his past self.

"Yeah...definitely us." Chloe looked at Mr. Black and said coldly, "You just watched?"

"Unfortunately, we were unable to assist you," said Mr. Black, "See those arms? They're meant to deal with anything that might interfere with the resequencing process. Including us."

"Wait a minute, the syringes don't come out of those things?" asked Matt.

"Syringes?" said Cydra, "We don't use syringes. You watch too many movies."

Mr. Black nodded. "Just watch," he said.

Azuth had pulled out a type of laser cutter and was trying to sever a hole in the window. "Cydra, stop that and help me," he said angrily and stopped. A faint gray mist was flowing into the room. The two Lynches had noticed it wand were trying to find a door in the wall. There was obviously some kind of sedative mixed into whatever was in the mist as they slowly got more sluggish in their movements before collapsing to the floor.

The computer chimed, "DNA resequence complete..." Then two of the mechanical arms grabbed Matt and Chloe. "A-001 intruders detected. Commencing incineration," said the computer.

Cydra must have finally got something because the arms suddenly went limp. "Council override accepted...system shut down activated."

Azuth looked over at the now smug Cydra. "Very good, but too late for them," he said as Cydra came up. "We cannot hand them over to the council. You know what they will do. They will either be incinerated or encoded, mindwiped and sent to the Elders," said Azuth angrily, "We should have been faster."

Suddenly Cydra paused and said, "I'm getting a feeling these two are going to be very important."

"How important?" asked Azuth.

"Like 'prophecy-fulfilling' important," said Cydra, "These two must go on living. They need to learn how to fight the enemies they will encounter."

"For heaven's sake, the temporal prediction division had been wrong before," said Azuth but he had the same feeling. The council was extremely worried about the developing problems in the few remaining colonies. The Shar-Virk were not attacking the newer, younger races like the NSC and Combine but it would soon only be a matter of time. "Fine, but where will we send them...and we should keep an eye on them, make sure the corrupted don't get their talons into them."

Suddenly the holograms vanished. Matt and Chloe blinked their eyes to get rid of the dizzying feeling. "I was able to send you to the NSS Nightingale," said Mr. Black, "or rather, close enough for them to send out a rescue team."

Matt thought back to what he remembered. The last thing he remembered had been the portal, the one probably still sitting in the New York museum, activating, sucking him and his sister in before waking up to several of the insectoid Powekeena aliens, telling them sadly that they were in Nullspace and had barely been rescued in time from the void.

"Ok, but why couldn't you tell us then about how we got there and what we've become?" asked Matt.

"Because you have met Taleth, he could have easily twisted whatever we said against us and you. Ignorance was the better option," said Mr Black.

"So, they haven't been killed in that explosion, have they?" said Chloe.

"No, Taleth is the sort of person that not even the creature OmegaMorph, not even the one you faced on Avalar, Mr. Lynch, compares too. He will take you both alive if he can and will twist you...bend you...corrupt you until you are as dark and twisted as he is, until you believe his ideals perfectly and do not remember a time you thought different," said Mr Black darkly. Chloe had noticed Matt had gone pale when Mr. Black mentioned Avalar.

"Do we want to know his back story or is that something we're better off not knowing?" asked Chloe.

"Taleth...was a Shar-Khan like yourselves…a war hero...until power went to his head. It is not my place to discuss him, you already know too much about him," said Mr. Black.

"So what you kids need to do is keep away from him and never consider a thing he says, unless it's a threat," said Cydra, "and since Kala has a whole soul now, she is capable of being corrupted so keep an eye on her."

Matt and Chloe nodded and jumped as the scenery changed back to the castle. Everyone else were looking at them. "Hey, you two ok? You flickered," said Chip.

"Just had a weird vision, that's all," said Matt. Chip was about to question when they heard arguing voices coming their way.

Goliath and Elisa walked into the room, deep in debate. "I still think you should have let me come, or at least tell me," said Elisa.

"I know," said Goliath, "but lead bullets do not seem to be affective against them."

"Well, you could have at least considered me in all this," said Elisa.

Chloe watched and whispered to Brooklyn, "What up with those two?"

"They're going through a bit of relationship turbulence," whispered Brooklyn, "It started when Angela casted a spell on Demona and we had to briefly turn off all the power in New York City. Elisa got mad because she felt that her word didn't matter in the final decision. Talon says they're trying to determine who's wearing the pants in their relationship."

Chloe smirked. "Ah...true love," she said, grinning.

Fortunately, before the arguing could endure for too much longer, Fox was able to find a solution. "Say, you know what helps me when I feel too much stress? A workout and a nice steam bath. It lets you release all those pent-up worries. Come on, I've got the keys to the women's executive steamroom."

Chloe noticed she wasn't too clean. "I need a shower too," she said.

Matt watched her go and looked up as the pipes above gave a suspicious clunk and Matt could have sworn, also said, "Ow...bugger."

Matt looked at Lexington. "Er...does plumbing usually swear?"

Sometime later, Fox, Elisa, and Chloe were relaxing in the steamroom. Kala, Sata, Angela, and Contrinus had joined them as well. Since the steam was so thick, they didn't have to worry about modesty.

Meanwhile, Matt, Lex, and Techo were in the maintenance room, trying to find out the source of the talking piping. Techo looked at a readout on his wristcomp, "There's something in the piping. I think it's alive."

"Odd? How could it be alive? It must have been in the plumbing for hours," said Lex.

"And I don't think fish could get in here," said Matt.

"Well, whatever it is, it's heading towards the steamroom," said Techo.

Matt was about to call Chloe when he realized that if it was something left behind by Janeth then it was about to have a REALLY bad day. "I think we should wait. I'm sure as hell not getting in the way of the girls in a bad mood, specially not my sister."

Suddenly, the hissing of incoming steam in the steamroom stopped. "Did you turn off the steam?" asked Elisa.

"No," said Fox, "and it hasn't gotten too much for it to automatically shut off."

Chloe got up and clunked the piping in the room along its length. "Blockage, hold on," she said, transforming to dragon form and sending an arc of lightning into the pipe which began to rattle.

She switched back to human form as the rattling continued from its current position down the pipe and finally at the valve where the steam went out. Then a large amount of black slime came out and splatted on the floor. It coalesced into NegaMorph who looked around in confusion. Then he looked straight ahead at the naked ladies in front of him and everyone screamed loudly.

Back at the maintenance room, Matt and the others could actually hear NegaMorph being beaten to a pulp. "Ok, like I said, let's not go in there," he said.

--

Shortly afterwards, NegaMorph was standing before Matt, Chris, Goliath, Broadway, Brooklyn, Xanatos, and Draco, all looking very annoyed at him. But nearly as annoyed as their female others, who were wearing bath robes and glaring at NegaMorph. NegaMorph himself was in a sorry state. He has blast burns, scratchs, gouges, and bruises all over his body.

"Look, NegaMorph is very sorry...AREN'T YOU?" said Matt, glaring at NegaMorph who had muttered, "If you hadn't had me playing as your personal spy..."

"Well, excuuuse me," said NegaMorph, "I didn't ask Janeth to stuff me into the plumbing. I certainly didn't want to pop out in the steamroom."

Matt absently moved away from NegaMorph as Chloe electrocuted him again.

"Look, I don't even have a sexual affiliation," said NegaMoph, "I'm an asexual blob. I wouldn't even be interested in seeing your..."

Another, more powerful, lightning bolt combined with a fireball from Kala hit him at the same time, blasting him against the wall. "Ow," winced Matt.

"Anyways, I was trying to spy on Janeth, on Matt's orders. It's not my fault that went wrong," said NegaMorph as he peeled himself off the wall.

Matt gulped as the glares turned to him. "Hey, I was just trying to confirm my suspicions. Anyway, I was right. Please stop looking at me that way," he said.

"That doesn't change the fact that NegaMorph was a..." Goliath paused and asked, "What is that term you humans use? 'Peeping Tom'?"

"I was not!" yelled NegaMorph, "It was a total accident!"

Matt sighed and said to Draco, "We could be here some time."

"Look, how many times do I have to apologize?" asked NegaMorph, "and for crying out loud, can I be allowed to heal myself?"

Matt muttered, "It'll be wasted effort."

"So, what should we do with him?" asked Broadway.

"Well, I certainly don't appreciate him peeping in on my wife," said Xanatos, "But from what he's said, I guess it was a simple accident."

"Ditto," said Brooklyn.

Matt nodded. "Accidents happen. He said sorry. I just need to do ONE thing," he said and blasted NegaMorph himself. "NEVER PEEP ON MY SISTER AGAIN YOU LITTLE SMEG!" before walking past the shocked group, whistling cheerfully to himself.

"I need a long cold shower," moaned NegaMorph, "I'm lucky I don't have any psychological damage from this. You think I could sue?"

Techo shook his head. "Nope, many have tried"

--

Matt was sitting in front of the TV, trying to forget the events of the day. Of course, since this was 1998, there wasn't much he could find to watch. Just as he was flipping channels, Kala walked in. Earlier, she had been wearing NSC standard mercenary armor. But now she was wearing blue jeans, and a red sleeveless T-shirt. "Hey Matt," she said.

Matt turned. "Kala," he said, standing up, "You ok? Look, I know what happened on the ship. I know all to well what you're going through," he said.

"That was really creepy," said Kala, "Having her in control. It made me feel really dirty inside."

"I know, but she won't be able to control you. I've got Techo knocking together an inhibitor for you, should be ready in an hour or two," said Matt.

"Good. And, I'm not sure if I've apologized for doubting what you said about Janeth," said Kala, "And if I haven't, I'm sorry."

Matt sighed. "Hey, he had us all fooled. Even I was almost convinced eventually," he said.

Kala nodded and said, "Anyways, since everything's quiet right now, you want to go out?"

Matt thought about it. As soon as Morph's contacts brought the encoder gear, Kala would be an experiment again. It wouldn't work, not long term, but then again... "Sure, let's go," he said smiling.

As he and Kala were leaving, Matt asked, "By the way, what blew up their shield reactor?"

"I think it was that stick of dynamite I found at Xiphos," said Kala, "It fell out of my pocket when the guards found me and I guess one of the sparks from the crystal lit it."

Chip shook his head, "No, it was an Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator."

Matt stopped. "You mean...planetary demo charges?" he said before looking at Kala. "Damn, I taught you well."

* * *

There's another chapter. I didn't really think it'd be this long when I was thinking it out, but I think I've gotten a decent amount done in it. Especially the clarification of the Shar-Virk and the Shar-Khan, which you can bet are going to be important plot points from now on. However, the Shar-Virk aren't going to be appearing in this story again. But don't worry, there'll be plenty of bad guys ahead. By the way, the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator is the same kind that Marvin the Martian tries to use to blow up the Earth. Also, as is indicated in this chapter, this story takes place after the story 'Lethe' on the Gargoyles fanfiction site. Stay tuned for the next chapter and please review.


	6. Joinings Uncommon

**Voyager Saga**

**Change of Soul**

**Chapter 6: Joinings Uncommon**

**Author's note: This chapter contains strong, but not overbearing, sexual content. While there are no actual descriptions, there are implications and brief glimpses. While it is prominent, it does not dominate over the other content of this chapter. Some may find this offensive and if they do, I apologize. In which case, simply skip over the sexual parts and read the rest of the story.**

Currently, the only time the gang wanted to hear the word 'fight' was when it was in the same sentence as 'TV'. They were completely wiped out from the battle with Taleth and his cronies and they just wanted to relax.

Even Matt, who was known to have listed on his merc profile under pastime, the words' kicking evils butt' was taking to sleeping almost all day. The only person who wasn't sleeping well was Kala. She was still having nightmares courtesy of Kai.

It had become a regular thing for Kala to wake up with a start while she was asleep, sometimes with a scream thrown in. Matt was slightly worried about her, he had a feeling there was more than one factor to her nightmares.

He was sitting opposite NegaMorph that morning. "Look, it's getting too weird," said Mat, "I'd ask Dr Willis to take a look but he's with the main ship over the Atlantic, salvaging Taleth's ship. I saw what kind of...creatures Taleth and his friends are. What if the same thing's happening to Kala?"

NegaMorph was currently deep into reading 'The Tempest', which he had borrowed from the Xanatos library. "You underestimate her," he said, not looking up, "She's too nice a girl to turn that bad."

Matt calmly pulled the book off him. "Look," said Matt, "So was Chloe. She turned evil enough. The clue was all the times she nearly let you dissect me. Look, maybe your negative powers are...contagious. You're practically next door to her," he said

NegaMorph looked up to glare at Matt. "My negative aura has been known to cause bad dreams to sleepers, but I have to at least be in the same room as them for it to work," he said. Then he took back his book and said, "Besides, isn't that what you're doing? Maybe she's getting the bad dream vibes from you."

Matt lunged across the table and it was lucky that Matt's fatigue had slowed him down otherwise there was no telling what he would have done to NegaMorph. "What?" he said coldly

"Oh come on," said NegaMorph, "You two have had the hots for each other since the last time we were here. Your dating's not doing much to deny either. By the way, have you gotten to any bases yet?"

This time Matt actually turned dragon. NegaMorph noticed that Matt's form seemed different...briefly as being strangled usually occupies your attention quite well.

Chloe walked past the room with Techo and saw what was going on. "Well, Matt's feeling better," she said

Then Kala came into the kitchen, wearing what appeared to be Matt's shirt and her underwear. "Hey guys," she said, not really surprised at the sight of Matt strangling NegaMorph, "Do we have any coffee? I think I can handle it as a human."

NegaMorph turned to Matt and said, "Oh Matt, you sly dog...."

Matt glared. "She doesn't have any pajamas yet, you little smeg," he said before turning to Chloe and Kala. "Excuse me a second," he said and continued strangling NegaMorph

"Are men always like this?" asked Kala.

"Well, you have to remember that NegaMorph's an asexual blob," said Chloe, "But yeah, pretty much." Chloe then managed to focus more on what Matt was now trying to do, which was stuffing NegaMorph down a waste disposal hatch. "I don't really want to know what this is about," she said, "But I'd prefer you not kill the guy we worked so hard to bring back to life."

"But it'd make me feel so much better," moaned Matt but let him go.

"Well, that's what video games are for," said Chloe, "anyways, Chip wanted to see us in the hanger about something."

Matt sighed. "Fine," he moaned, giving a polite nod to Kala in passing.

Then Chloe turned to Kala and said, "By the way, we haven't done that girl-to-girl time yet, have we?"

"Bow-chicka-wow-wow," said NegaMorph. The two women glared at NegaMorph. NegaMorph shrugged and said, "Sorry, no idea where that came from."

Matt and the group walked into the hanger and looked around. "So, what is it Chip has to show off?" said Matt

Then Matt noticed a robot coming towards him. It was about the same size Chip was when he was normal and basically looked like a jet engine with arms, legs, and a head similar to Chip's. It stopped in front of Matt and said something in a language composed of beeps and clicks.

"What the hell is that?" said Matt, stepping back.

Chip had come into the hanger and said, "Ah, I see you guys have met my new assistant."

"Assistant?" asked Chloe.

"I built him myself. I call him 'Chase'. Chase, show them what you can do," said Chip. Chase beeped and transformed into a blaster gun. The gun jumped into the air and landed in Chip's hand.

"You know you won't be a Cybertronian forever, right?" said Matt

"Of course," said Chip, "But I was thinking I could scan this form and build it later. Could be useful for NSC troops. Check this out." Chip transformed to his hovercraft mode while Chase switched back to robot mode and sat in the control seat. "With Chase guiding my weapons, I'll be able to take better shots," said Chip.

Matt sighed. "Could be, but of course we're not exactly the apple of NSC command's eye," said Techo

"Maybe, but then again, seeing what the NSC are up against, they'll want every advantage they can get," said Chip as he switched back to robot mode.

"Lets just say Cybertronians aren't popular...and neither is their tech..." said Techo.

--

Meanwhile, in the Broken, Germany, Headquarters of the Unseelie Court, Maddoc was thinking over the most recent events. "So, dragons appear exist in other world. And they appear to divide between good and evil. While I doubt they'll stay for long, I'd rather not take the chance."

Garlon walked forward. "I did run into another group with a dragon in it. They seemed a bit more cooperative, especially when we mentioned the first group. They seemed quite eager for a chance to attack them."

"Indeed," said Maddoc, "Send them to the throne room, I will meet with them shortly. There wouldn't happen to be any aliens among them, are there?"

"A couple," said Garlon uncertainly.

"Then this should prove interesting," said Maddoc, "Send for Maeve, Loki, and Sekhmet. I'm sure they'll want to watch too."

The trio were brought in. If any of the crew had been present they could have named all three. There was Mantichrome the revenge droid, still dented from his last run in with the Lynches, Omnirus, still trapped in her X0 form, and the clear dragon of the group, Ghoulwyrm.

Maddoc looked the three of them and commented, "My, my, what a very unusual mix we have here."

"Bite me," said Omnirus coldly

Ghoulwyrm pushed her aside. "Haven't I heard of you somewhere?"

"More than likely," said Maddoc, "My kind are known through the legends of all the cultures of this world. I am Lord Maddoc, soon to be King of Avalon. This is my consort, Lady Maeve. And these are faithful servants; Loki, trickster god of the Norse, and Sekhmet, warrior goddess of the Egyptians. Of course, you already know my faithful aide, Garlon."

"It is such an honor to be among legends," said Ghoulwyrm, "I am Count Ghoulwyrm, master of the arts of necromancy."

"Since when were you count?" said Omnirus.

"And I wouldn't call you a master with your track-" began Mantichrome before both his and Omnirus' mouths were wrapped up by two of Ghoulwyrm's bandages.

"Pardon my companions," said Ghoulwyrm, "They have a habit of speaking out of turn. These are my trusted comrades, Mantichrome and Omnirus."

"Indeed," said Maddoc as he rubbed his chin, "You are all of a rather unusual nature, even to my experienced eyes."

Omnirus ripped the bandage off her mouth and said, "We get that all the time."

Sekhmet rolled her eyes and said, "Why do we waste our time with these abominations? They are not fit to be in our presence." This earned her the collective glare of Ghoulwyrm, Mantichrome, and Omnirus.

"Have patience, Sekhmet," said Maddoc, "This trio bears interest to me. I believe they could be of use to us."

"Why would we need them?" asked Loki as he conjured a yoyo and started playing with it, "We've already got enough muscle on our team."

"There is always room for more," said Maddoc, "Not to mention these three are of a kind never seen before in this world. Our enemies, the gargoyles, will not be able to defend themselves against them."

"Wait a second," said Mantichrome, having also torn off his bandage, "What makes you think we'll do your dirty work."

Ghoulwyrm knocked him over with one swipe from his tail and pinned him with one of his arms. "Because the Manhattan Clan is currently hosting the crew of the Bladestorm, which would allow us to deal with all our enemies in one blow," said Ghoulwyrm, "Not to mention they are soon going to be figures of great importance in the new world order they're going to set up."

"And assistance in our endeavors will not go unrewarded," said Maddoc, "Should you and your team succeed in eliminating all who live in Castle Wyvern, you will have carry titles of power when I rule Avalon and the rest of the Earth."

"Truly, a generous offer you honor us with," said Ghoulwyrm, one of his eyes rotating to give Omnirus a glare that told her to hold her tongues. She remained silent, though she did make a cough that sounded suspiciously like 'boot-licker'.

"Ye think these three will be able to do away with the gargoyles?" asked Maeve.

"They are not entirely alone," said Maddoc, "They possess several minions who are also unfamiliar to the Clan. They'll be able to overwhelm them with ease."

"Except that their enemies are allied with the clan," reminded Sekhmet.

"Big cat's got a point," said Loki as he was doing 'round-the-world', "The gargoyles haven't faced them before, but those guys sure have, and kicked their butts by the sounds of it."

"Which is why the two of you will be going with them," said Maddoc, "Have you not been both complaining of boredom for the last several weeks?"

"Finally, some action," said Loki as his yoyo disappeared with a flash of light, "This is gonna be fun."

Sekhmet gave a grin that showed her sharp lion's teeth. "They shall crumble before our awesome might," she said.

"Delighted to hear that," said Maddoc, "Now go, you have preparing to do before your attack." Sekhmet and Loki bowed towards Maddoc and led the villainous trio out of the throne room.

As soon as they were gone, Maeve turned to Maddoc. "Are you sure this is wise?" she asked, "We barely know them and they could likely betray us. The dracolich in particular looked dubious. Ye can tell his sycophancy was only a front."

"I have to agree," said Garlon, "Even by our standards, those three are very morally dubious. Though I think the chimera seems the most treacherous. She clearly does not like be restrained."

Maddoc laughed loudly, much to Maeve and Garlon's confusion. "You two misplace your distrust," said Maddoc, "Of the three of them, it is the robot who is the least trustworthy."

"Is he?" asked Maeve, "He don't seem as threatening as the other two."

"The least threatening-seeming ones are often the most dangerous," said Garlon.

"True," said Maddoc, "But did you not see the look in his eyes. They were full of a deep hatred for his fellow and us. I dare say this one had a great dislike towards beings like us."

"More than that," said Garlon, "I've looked at their minions and the only ones working for Mantichrome are completely robotic. If I had to guess, he seems have a very great dislike for all things non-mechanical."

"Either way, he is no trouble to us," said Maddoc, "Ghoulwyrm seems capable of keeping him in place. And if not, we know how to deal with rouge machines. But the important thing is that they get rid of the alliance of humans and gargoyles."

--

Meanwhile, Matt and Kala decided to go walk down Broadway. Seeing as how it's so famous for its performances, it ought to be worth checking out.

Matt looked over at Kala. "Nothing like New York in summer," he said happily. He'd left his weapons and combat armor back at the castle, mostly because he could throw an orb of plasma in the face of any idiot dumb enough to try to mug them, not that he'd need to help. Kala's dragon form had given Matt the idea that she could dropkick anyone stupid enough to try their luck.

"If it can be described as that," said Kala as she hugged her jacket closer to her body, "It's so cold out here."

"Ah, don't worry about it. How about a hot dog and some coffee to warm yourself up?" said Matt, walking towards a vendor.

"You sure Matt?" said Kala, "I know what I said before this morning, but that was in a private place. But out here in public..."

"Look, at the moment the only thing likely to send you off the rails is Kr'ta," said Matt before buying her a Styrofoam cup of coffee and himself a can of cola.

Kala took a sip of her coffee and said, "Mmm, it tastes so good."

"Ah, this is just simple street corner coffee," said Matt, "You should go to Starbucks. That's where they got the good blends."

The two walked on further down the street and saw a news report on a TV, showing a report about some kind in mass hallucination the previous All Hallows' Eve.

"Why does all the fun stuff happen when we're not around?" said Matt.

"Guess they're still trying to figure that one out," said Kala.

Matt sniggered. "If only they came around the multiverse with us, broaden their horizons," he said and stopped when a voice whispered, "Hands where I can see em, bud."

"Oh no," muttered Matt in a bored tone

"No funny movements, from either of you," said the mugger, "Now head over to that alley, nice and easy-like."

Matt and Kala looked and each other and grinned evilly. "Lesson one, young padawan," said Matt and then said, "Oh no, don't hurt us," in a very unconvincing way.

"Keep movin', funny guy," said the mugger as he brought his knife out and against Matt's side. Matt's smile widened much to the mugger's personal worry but the two complied, walking into the alley in front of him and into the deep shadows. "Alright, enough monkeyshines," said the mugger, "Just hand over all your money and valuables.

There were two blazes of light in front of the mugger, making him shield his eyes briefly and Matt's voice said, "Monkeys? Us? I'm almost insulted." The voice carried a strange faint echo.

"Hey! What the heck's going on here?" said the mugger. "Nothing much," said Kala's voice, also echoing, "Just probably the unluckiest day of your career."

A clawed and scaled hand shot out the shadows and knocked the mugger into some dustbins and his previous victims walked out into view. The mugger could only squeak when he saw the pair of dragons, a blue male and a red female, approach him with a look that boded ill for his self-esteem. "This can't be real," he said, "I gotta be halucinatin'. Must have been that pastrami sandwich, I knew it didn't taste right."

"Not really," said the female.

The male leaned forward till its muzzle was an inch from the mugger's nose. It opened its mouth to reveal some lethal-looking dentistry. "...boo," it said

The mugger screamed like a little girl. He looked down and said, "I we-we-wet myself."

The two dragons looked down. "Yeah...you did," said the female uncertainly.

The male looked back up. "Run away, run now, and stop mugging. It's not nice. You never know who you're mugging."

The mugger nodded vigorously and ran away screaming. "Huh, you'd think he had demons chasing after him or something," said Matt.

Kala nodded and looked over at Matt. "Well, he did meet us," she said with a smile.

Matt looked at Kala and said, "You looked so hot standing over him. Kinda makes you forget about the cold, doesn't it?"

"Oh, I don't know. I think I could get a little warmer," said Kala, giving Matt a knowing wink.

Matt smiled a bit at the wink. "Yeah, it does, dear," he said.

"How about we head over to somewhere private and get really fired up?" said Kala.

"I like your style, dragon lady," said Matt.

Then Kala slammed Matt against the wall and said, "On second thought, let's do it right here, right now."

"Baby, I am so there," said Matt.

The two of them rolled on the ground as they made out, completely oblivious to the sleeping bum who was just waking up. "What's going on?" yawned the bum before seeing Matt and Kala, "Ew, ew, ew! Ew! Ew! Ew!" Matt bopped the bum over the head with a broken lamp before getting back to Kala.

--

_Author's note: Ladies and gentlemen, I'm afraid that I cannot describe what Matt and Kala are doing right now. You see, this is very graphic sex (hot anthro dragon sex at that) and I don't want to have to move the rating of this fic up to an M. So, I'll let your imaginations do the work here._

--

Mantichrome swooped passed a skyscraper, muttering about menial labor. "Stupid Unseelie, telling me what to do, jumped up little pixies," he muttered, scanning the city below. He didn't know why he had to be out here. If he wanted some espionage done, he'd have sent Leafstripper. Mantichrome highly suspected that the only reason that he was sent out was to humiliate him for his recent failure.

As he was passing over a certain alley, he suddenly felt a large updraft of hot air that lifted him higher than he had anticipated. The quick change in temperatures also steamed up his optics. "Oh hell no," he said, rubbing at them. "Hah...oh slag," he said as an apartment building loomed very large.

Before he could reassert himself, Mantichrome crashed into the wall and got his head stuck. As he struggled to get free, he noticed that the part of the apartment he had crashed into was a bedroom and there was a man and woman in the bed. "Oh...evening," he said politely, "Official wall inspection," and shot a flash grenade into the wall and flew a few blocks away. "Damn organics, they get everywhere."

--

Margot and Brendon watched the hole where Mantichrome's head was briefly. "What on earth was that?" asked Brendon.

"Not sure," said Margot, "but I think we should think it was a hallucination from the wine and blame the hole for some careless gargoyle. That wine had me hallucinate about a trio of dragons last week."

"But, where'd the platinum coins from?" asked Brendon.

"Brendon, let's not talk about this. Can we get back to what we were doing?"

"Sounds good to me," said Brendon as he moved closer.

--

Mantichrome perched on a water tower to try and recollect his thoughts. The couple he accidentally peeked in on was apparently in the middle of something. What was it? He remembered that neither of them had the outer casing that humans normally wear. Then a rather unpleasant thought crossed his processor. "Reproduction, ugh, the most repulsive feature of these organics," he shuddered. A secondary process also reminded him of the alley. The thought did not improve. "OH CREATORS, MY MEMORY SYSTEM!!!" he screamed.

Sadly, Omnirus was just turning on the comm to him when he yelled, blowing out the woofer in the comm unit. Omnirus quickly whipped off the headphones. As she tried to rub some sensation back into her first pair of ears, she used her other arms to put the headphones on the second set. "Mantichrome, report, what's your status?" said Omnirus.

"I think my CPU's melting!" screamed Mantichrome on the other end, not listening.

Omnirus blinked in confusion and said, "I thought you were just doing reconnaissance."

"The horror! The organic horror!" wailed Mantichrome.

Omnirus sighed and sent an electrical burst down the link. "Better?" she said, making a note of it to blackmail Mantichrome later.

"Plenty," said Mantichrome, "Nothing of notice around here, except for what I plan to delete from my memory banks when I get back."

"Did you find the Lynches?" said Omnirus, annoyed.

"One of them," said Mantichrome, "Though I wish I hadn't."

"What? Send the data now," she said.

Mantichrome said worriedly, "You really do not want this data."

"Ghoulwyrm will be the judge of that, now send it over," said Omnirus.

"Yeah, yeah, stupid Ghoulwyrm," said Mantichrome as he sent the data over, "You're gonna be sorry."

Ghoulwyrm and two Unseelie guards burst in a minute later to see Omnirus gibbering in terror and the smoking data terminal the group had brought.

Ghoulwyrm picked up the headphones and said, "Mantichrome, you better have a good explanation for this."

"I warned her. Let's just say the captain was having some down time..." he said and said in a hysterical squeak, "I don't wanna talk about it."

Ghoulwyrm looked confused and said, "Never mind that, have you found anything worth reporting?"

"There's organics coming out the woodwork. Tell me we're dropping a few plasma torpedoes on this place upon leaving," said Mantichrome.

"Enough with your petty prejudices," said Ghoulwyrm, "Just report on the current state of their security and see if you can find anything that could be useful to us."

"Most of the Captain's crew are at the Atlantic, stripping that ship they shot down. His usual friends are with him though, could be trouble," said Mantichrome.

"And what about the Manhatten Clan?" said Ghoulwyrm, "Any changes with them?"

"Still doing imitations of novelty garden gnomes, sitting ducks." said Mantichrome

"That's not what we need to worry about," said Ghoulwyrm, "Remember, we're striking after nightfall."

"What?" said Mantichrome, "Why not now? The castle's ripe for the picking."

"Because I'm not at full power during the day, end of discussion," said Ghoulwyrm, "Check out the Xanatos security system then head on back."

Mantichrome suddenly tensed up. "Hold on, something's coming. I'll call back," he said and hung up. He ducked down to see a robotic gargoyle come into view. "Ah, guess I can start early," he muttered

However, upon examining his memory files, Mantichrome could see this was neither the cybergoyles 'Coldstone' or 'Coldfire'. This one was a different design, silver with black detail around the head meant to resemble long hair. "Hmm, I did hear about a rogue unit," he muttered before yelling, "Hey! Who're you?"

The robot gargoyle turned and spotted Mantichrome. "What's this? Another automaton gifted with intelligent life?" he said, "Seems to becoming common nowadays. Tell me, were you always a machine or was your soul placed in that armor?"

"What? Are you calling me a former organic? How dare you?" said Mantichrome, insulted.

"Hmm, it would seem the former is the correct answer," said the cybergoyle, "Very well comrade, it appears we have need to properly introduce ourselves. I am named Coldsteel."

"I'm Mantichrome, a revenge class assault droid," said Mantichrome.

"A fancy title," said Coldsteel, "Your design looks to be of a higher level than my body's. Tell me, from where were you constructed?"

Mantichrome glared. "I'm afraid that's my own business," he said.

"Very well," said Coldsteel, "Perhaps we should endeavor to discover some common ground."

"Well, my crew does want to smash every one of those slimy organic gargoyles in the castle," said Mantichrome.

"Ah, this is most fortuitous," said Coldsteel, "I too want to lay siege to that castle and crush all I used to call my brethren."

Mantichrome smirked. "You'd better come with me. There's someone you'll definitely want to meet."

--

Meanwhile, NegaMorph was showing Megan more refined techniques of using her negative energy blasts in the den when Matt and Kala came through the door. The two were hugging each other and looked quite happy, a clear contrast from their mood following the battle in the Atlantic.

"What's with the big grins?" asked NegaMorph. Then both he and Megan caught the large aura of lust coming off of Matt and Kala. It didn't take a supercomputer to add up the components. "Well, well, well," said NegaMorph, "I was wondering when you two were going to do it."

Matt and Kala didn't turn but did blast NegaMorph before walking off. Megan laughed. "They're definitely a couple. They've started sharing interests," she said.

"Oh, they're sharing a lot more than that," groaned NegaMorph as he got back up. "By the way, have you got the time?"

"Just past sundown...why?" said Megan.

"Oh, I think those two will be finding a pair of kindred spirits very soon," said NegaMorph, "Now, you need to remember that every orifice can shoot out a blast..."

Meanwhile, Matt and Kala were walking past some bedrooms. "You don't think they'll spread it around, do you?" asked Kala.

"If they do, I'm gonna poke a hole through them with a plasma beam," said Matt.

"Speaking of poking holes, how about another-" Kala paused and said, "Do you hear something?" Draco and Contrinus's voices could be heard coming from a nearby room. "Matt, no, come on. Let's go," said Kala as Matt, curious, crept forward.

Matt ignored her and put his hand on the knob. "I just wanna see what they're talking about," he said as he opened the door.

Matt and Kala looked inside and their jaws dropped. They slowly tilted their heads to one side before quickly and quietly closing the door. Though they were no longer looking, their minds were filled with the images of scattered clothing, moving sheets, and very...busy gargoyles.

Matt looked at Kala. "I think I'm gonna have a...chat with NegaMorph about his lust powers...and keeping them in check." he said

"Uh, ok," said Kala, "What should we do about..."

"Leave them," said Matt, "I know when to let sleeping dogs lie."

"But they weren't dogs," said Kala, "But they sure were..."

"I know what they were doing," said Matt, "I'd just rather not talk about it."

NegaMorph was walking around a corner when a pair of hands pulled him into a room. "Time for a chat, cupid," said Matt.

"I was wondering when you were going to find them," said NegaMorph, "Hot-blooded bunch, aren't they?"

"How long have you been making them do this?" asked Matt.

"Moi?" said NegaMorph, "I haven't done anything. They've been doing it at least twice a night ever since I came fully back to life. And possibly earlier than that."

"And us?" said Matt angrily. He did not like the idea of NegaMorph betraying his trust (from his point of view) so soon.

"Same answer," said NegaMorph calmly, "And for future reference, my lust powers are mostly focused around desire and I only use them when tracking someone. Megan might have been practicing her powers, but I'm pretty sure it's all natural."

Matt glared then remembered the trouble he'd had as Striker with Avarona. "Point taken," he said.

"Now, if you care to release, Megan asked if I could help her move some of her stuff to the Nighthawk so we can be ready to leave, then I have to pick up a few bets. Would you like to help or do you have to go back to your girlfriend?" Matt's eyes blazed red. "Now, Matt, I was only jo..." began NegaMorph.

--

Megan was waiting in the courtyard when she heard an explosion and NegaMorph walked through the door, a small flame on his head. "Don't ask," he said.

Matt walked outside, smoke coming off his hands. "I suppose I should help," said Matt, "Manual labor should help let off a little steam."

"Actually," said NegaMorph, "I've heard that angry sex is..." NegaMorph practically shriveled under Matt's glare. "Uh, nevermind."

"Now then, you wanted some help?" said Matt, harmlessly making NegaMorph fly aside with plasma control.

"Just with a few boxes," said Megan, indicating a couple of containers Matt hadn't seen until then.

Matt looked at one of the boxes in particular. It had airholes for a start. "Erm, I said no creatures from hell," he said, poking the box carefully.

"Well, technically he's not from- Wait! Don't open that!" shouted Megan as Matt put his hands on the latch. Matt opened the top of the box...and regretted it 0.0012 seconds later.

Something large and dark jumped out of the box and tackled Matt to the ground. Matt looked up to see what looked like a black wolf with the horns, spines, front legs, wings, and tail of a purple dragon standing on his chest and sniffing him over. Matt began the usual response reserved for Chupy, which was to scream bloody murder till a security team arrived with tazer rifles.

They were about to fire when Megan cried, "No! Stop!" He looked at the wolf and said, "Weirdwolf, down." The wolf whined a little bit before getting off of Matt, walking over to Megan, and sitting down, panting happily.

Matt got up. "What the hell is that?" he said, backing up.

"This is Weirdwolf," said Megan, "He was a from a test batch of dracowolves that Ghoulwyrm created, only one of them was a German Shepherd hybrid." Matt looked at Weirdwolf who barked happily and rolled onto his back in the unmistakable position of wanting his belly scratched.

Matt gulped. He happily told anyone about the family dog back at him home but this was a new thing. "Erm...good...dog...thing," he said. Weirdwolf barked excitedly, got up on his hindlegs, put his forelegs on Matt's shoulders, and started licking his face. Unfortunately, it seemed that the slobber was slightly acidic. "Gah! It burns!" yelled Matt, falling backwards. Weirdwolf took this to mean he wanted more slobber on him.

NegaMorph was watching this show of affection from a safe distance. "I can see where Ghoulwyrm went wrong," he said.

Kala came out at that. "What the blitznak is that? Are those acid burns?" she said on seeing Matt.

"Oh, it's just Megan's new dog," said Matt as he pushed Weirdwolf off, "And guess what? He's a necromancy experiment reject."

Kala sighed, "I don't know what's sadder: the zombie dog or the fact I'm not surprised."

"He's not a zombie, he's just part dragon," said Megan, "Come here, Weirdwolf." Weirdwolf happily trotted over to his mistress who scratched his ears.

Kala just stared before shrugging. "It's too late, let's go to bed, Matt," she said.

"Gladly," said Matt, "just need to grab some ointment for my face." He turned to NegaMorph and said, "One attempt at that double entendre, and you're going down the toilet."

* * *

There's another chapter. As you can see, quite a lot has happened here, particularly between Matt & Kala and Draco & Contrinus. Hopefully, you weren't offended by this. If so, I apologize. Anyways, there are other important things in here. Probably most prominent to you Gargoyles fans is the return of the infamous Coldsteel, who's joining up with Ghoulwyrm's group, who is joining up with the Unseelie Court. Not a very pleasant prospect, that you can be sure. Another thing of notice is Chip's assistant, Chase. This is a nod towards the G1 Transformers series as Chip Chase was a recurring human character during the first two seasons and that Chip is essentially a Targetmaster now. Of course, that may fly over a couple of readers' heads, but it's still cool. Weirdwolf is a character from another story of mine I hope to write on deviantART soon. Hopefully I will as soon as someone I know provides me the character designs I requested of them. Anyways, this chapter was just the eye of the storm so you can expect a lot more action in the next chapter. Keep an eye out for it and please review.


	7. Weakness of the Flesh

**Voyager Saga**

**Change of Soul**

**Chapter 7****: Weakness of the Flesh**

It was the same dream again. The same one that haunted him at this time of the year. The screams of his squadron mates over the Starfury's comm...the green flashes of Combine pulse beams mixed with the orange flares of their exploding targets...and in the middle, the looming shape of the insectoid-looking Combine cruiser in the centre of the destruction. Matt knew this too well, events that he wished he could forget. It was the next part he wanted to forget...the barely lit room...the searing pain of the Psy-blader device...and the single aristocratic voice asking over and over "How many...and when are they coming?"

"For the last time, there's no attack fleet coming," groaned Matt. This just simply earned him another burst of pain from the torture device.

The shadow of his tormenter sighed. "Again...put it up to level six." The next burst of pain made him feel like he'd been hit with a flamethrower at point blank range...the shock waking him.

--

Matt shot up right with a half-yell.

"Matt? Are you ok?" Matt looked over to Kala in bed next to him.

"Oh, it's nothing, just a nightmare," said Matt. Kala smiled and turned over, going back to sleep again. Matt sighed to himself. "Yeah, a nightmare."

Suddenly the door burst open and both Matt and Kala sat straight up, Kala taking the sheets to cover her bare chest. Standing at the door was Chloe, a look of both anger and disgust on her face. "Ok you two, get your butts into my room, now!" She looked at the scattered clothing on the floor with even more disgust and said, "And put some clothes on for Christ's sake!"

--

About 20 minutes later, Matt and Kala were in their armor in Chloe's room...and they were not alone. Contrinus and Draco were there too. "I thought I was captain. I'm supposed to do the yelling," he muttered to Draco, making the experiment-turned-gargoyle smirk.

Chloe was pacing angrily in front of them. And as an even more curious sight, NegaMorph was also in the room, in what appeared to be a transparent glass box.

"Ok...Chloe? I am the boss of the Bladestorm last I looked. Is there a reason you're being the inquisition all of a sudden?" said Matt.

Draco also added "And why is NegaMorph in that box?"

"Oh, this is an Observation Prism," said NegaMorph, "It's completely unbreakable from the outside, so it allows spectators to watch interesting scenes without being hurt. Only you have to smash your way out so they're only good for one use."

"Wuss." muttered Contrinus.

Matt sniggered. "Least he's learning the ins and out of ship-board survival," he said.

Then Chloe commanded their attention. "Do you have any idea what you've guys just done?" she demanded.

"Rest and relaxation?" suggested Matt.

Chloe rolled her eyes and said, "You've never read the manual regarding 'disrespectful actions' have you?"

"Uh, not really," said Matt, "I kinda zone out after the first three pages."

"Then allow to provide that," said NegaMorph as he pulled the book out. He flipped it open to the right page and said, "Chapter 13, Section 4, Subsection 6; Any commanding officer caught doing unpermitted sexual actions is to be held under inquisition by their second-in-command."

Matt glared at NegaMorph. "So...what's the penalty? Thumb screws at dawn?" he said sarcastically.

"Not really, if the second-in-command deems the offense creditable, they are subjected to either 8 points of conduct or whatever punishment the second-in-command finds acceptable."

"Well, we don't get paid so points of conduct don't matter. That means...oh crap..." said Matt before saying "Chloe? We're brother and sister, please don't do anything you'll regret."

"I'm considering it," said Chloe sternly.

Draco, in an attempt to change the topic, said, "You ratted us out, didn't you?"

"Not me," said NegaMorph, "Ariana saw Matt and Kala going into Matt's room, then she told Greame, Greame told Brooklyn, Morph overheard, and it kinda spread out from there."

"Why me?" muttered Matt gloomily

"And us?" demanded Contrinus.

"Heck, nearly everyone knew about you," said NegaMorph, "As a matter of fact, there was a bit of betting to see when the Lynches would find out. I bet Matt would find out about your forsaken virginity the same day he'd forsake his virginity. Got a big payload from that."

Matt turned to NegaMorph and sighed, saying, "Ok, how much did you win?"

"Quite a lot," said NegaMorph as he pulled a couple bundles of dollars, "The question is what to spend it on."

Chloe stopped smirking at NegaMorph before turning back to the group, frowning again. "Look, do you have any idea what could happen? To both of you two couples?"

"Actually, I've taken the liberty of having Dr. Willis check some blood samples from both parties," said NegaMorph as he pulled out some medical reports. "It says here that there's no threat of STDs or possible bodily rejections."

Chloe upped the glare some more. "You realize you could have actually...started a family? I doubt even Sue could have gotten you out of trouble then."

"Well, that's the beauty of gargoyle physiology," said NegaMorph, "Females are only fertile once every 20 years. Nevertheless, I did have Dr. Willis check out both Contrinus and Kala." He pulled out two more medical reports and said, "Contrinus is in the clear and Kala... wait, what's this?" He looked closely at the report and said, "No wait, just an ink smudge, clean bill of health all around."

She looked back up to see both Kala and Matt had fainted...though Matt seemed to have fallen asleep again instead judging from the snores.

"Uh, you might want to wake them back up," said NegaMorph, "Sunrise is coming I think we want to wrap this up now than later."

Chloe sighed and electrocuted Matt and Kala till they woke up. "Look, just...lay off the couple stuff, ok?" she said

"Fine, fine," said Matt, somewhat nervous that he narrowly dodged two bullets.

Then Chloe turned to NegaMorph and asked, "By the way, is there anything about the betting table about me?"

"Nope," said NegaMorph, "Practically everyone thinks you're so picky, you'll end up a lonely old crone." He paused and said, "Or is that Talia I'm thinking about?"

Chloe turned on NegaMorph who looked smug. Almost every light burned out as Chloe absorbed the electricity. "Erm...take cover?" suggested Matt. The group dived for cover just as a blast of lightning shot into the prism...and through it...and NegaMorph.

When the smoke cleared, NegaMorph groaned, "Last time I buy from eBay," before passing out.

--

In another part of New York City, a group of various villains were well into the careful art of plotting. "As soon as night falls, we shall attack the castle from the sky," said Ghoulwyrm.

Omnirus shook her head. "So? I bet all my alien forms that Matt and his men will be on guard. I dunno about you, but I have no urge to meet the receiving end of 40 pulse rifles."

"Which is why we're going to have Mantichrome broadcast a fake Shar-Virk signal from the other side of this planet," said Ghoulwyrm, "That should lure away a majority of Lynch's forces and we should be able to overwhelm the rest."

"I doubt that'll work, given that Techo or Chip would spot a fake from the other side of the galaxy," said Omnirus

Suddenly a snowball hit her in the back of the head. She turned around glaring to see Loki whistling innocently. "Nice try, but I've got eyes on my back, remember?" she growled.

Loki smirked. "Why so negative about the chances? Anyone would think you wanted them to win," he said.

He tilted his body slightly to avoid the fireball Omnirus threw at him. "You think you're really funny, don't you?" she growled.

"Oh, I know I'm funny." retorted Loki.

Mantichrome sighed, "I can handle Chip. An attack just before sunset might work, catch them when they're tired."

"That method has been tried before," said Garlon, "Very recently, in fact."

"I'm guessing it didn't go well?" said Omnirus, smugly.

"It seemed it might at first," said Garlon, "but reportedly, Hyena tried to rip the side of an alien girl and a black demon-like one came out when he heard her screams and drove them off."

Omnirus started laughing. "General NegaMorph's signed up with Matt? Oh, this is golden," she said, falling down from laughter

A deep growling made Omnirus stop laughing. Ghoulwyrm's were starting to glow with angry purple light. "NegaMorph and his niece," he growled, "The former gave a rather painful injury once and the latter ruined two of my potential fodder troops. I'll have to settle that score with them."

"You'll get your chance." said Garlon

"How much longer will this planning take?" demanded Sekhmet, "It's hard enough to believe I'm fighting alongside mindless machines, even ones who share a grudge with our enemies." She gave an unsavory glance at Mantichrome and Coldsteel.

Mantichrome said something in splitter. It was a certainty that it was not a compliment and it was probably a blessing that it was untranslatable too.

"The attack is to take place after sundown, so we must use the time till then to streamline our plan," said Ghoulwyrm.

Sekhmet gave a haughty sniff and said, "I don't need to take orders on how to fight from anyone, particularly a rotten corpse."

Chang glared. "You will respect the new Dragon of Darkness," she said angrily.

"Ooh, such an honorable title," said Sekhmet, "The only Dragon of Darkness I know is Apep, and last time I checked, he didn't look like a one-monster horror museum."

"Ooh, nice one," said Loki, clapping a little bit.

Chang hissed angrily. Ghoulwyrm was sorely tempted to let them fight it out. "Look, ladies, there's enough of me to go round." The next instant, he received two spell blasts to the face. He coughed up a little soot and said, "Perhaps I should have phrased that more properly," he said.

Mantichrome nodded. "Yeah, even I could tell that," he said.

"Now then, back to business..." started Ghoulwyrm but was cut off when a spitball flew straight into his ear. He gave a yelp of discomfort and snapped, "Loki!"

Loki actually looked innocent. "It was the Care Bear wannabe," he said, pointing at Leroy who was also looking innocent.

"Well, anyways..." started Ghoulwyrm as he used one of his claws to try and fish the spitball out of his ear. Then Leroy took a peashooter out and shot off several more spitballs, several of them landing on the fae's faces, particularly the redcaps.

"Who invited this unrefined beast?" asked Garlon with annoyance.

"I think Omnirus has something to do with it," said Bananas B.

The alien group watched with the embarrassment of relation as the redcaps tried to beat Leroy up. "Omnirus, do you ever regret letting Leroy out that cell?" asked Mantichrome.

"A little bit," said Omnirus as she ducked to avoid a flying club, "Perhaps I should turn down his mischievous factor a notch."

Loki smirked. "Say what you like. He's my kinda person," he said and dived into the melee himself with a cry of 'DOGPILE!'

Ghoulwyrm rubbed his temples and groaned to himself, "This is going to be a long day."

"Well, well, well," said Sekhmet sarcastically, "Look who just got to the party."

Ghoulwyrm glared at her and said, "Don't start with me, woman."

"Start what? Who's starting?"

Mantichrome sighed to himself and said, "If this going to involve indoor theater, I'm gonna get some oil."

"I'll accompany you," said Coldsteel. The two robots left as a redcap's shoe flew over their heads.

Manitchrome glared at where Leroy appeared to be getting the upper hand against the redcaps, via using one of their own as a club. "These disgusting organics. Makes me sick to my waste files."

Coldsteel cleared his throat and said, "May I remind you that I was once flesh and blood?"

"And that's the only fault I find with you," said Mantichrome, "I find your appetite for vengeance and power matches my own in a rather fellowship way."

"I might take that as a compliment," said Coldsteel levelly, "In any case, do you believe your forces shall be able to deal the clan a harsh blow?"

Mantichrome shrugged. "Sure, after the kinda luck I've had recently I could do with some time to unwind," he said, actually making Coldsteel shudder a bit as he envisioned what Mantichrome might think of as 'unwinding'

"But you said your mechanical sharks have failed to slay them before," said Coldsteel.

"The Sharkticons would have been able to perform their job, if the NSC hadn't barged in at the last minute," said Mantichrome, "While they might not have the same field advantage as before, they are quite deadly on land."

--

Matt was sitting on the ramparts, looking at the stars. He couldn't get over the feeling that he and Kala had played with guns and nearly got shot as a result.

"Ironic, isn't it?" said a voice. Matt turned to see what looked like Draconus, "You've faced all sorts of alien monsters and gave them lip without breaking a sweat. And now you nearly had a heart attack at the thought of knocking up your girlfriend."

"Get lost, Draconus, back in my head," Matt said in a dangerous tone of voice.

Draconus smirked, "Not likely, so what's with the Star wars style battle in your dreams?"

"If you were really me, you'd know," said Matt, "And even if you didn't, I'm not up to talking about it with anyone."

Draconus smirked "I'll find out sooner then- WHOA!" he said, vanishing as Matt lunged at him, falling down the parapet stairs as a result to come to a halt at Lexington's feet.

"Uh...hey Matt," said Lexington as he looked up at where Matt had been. "Uh, what were you doing up there?"

"Nothing...just thinking," said Matt, getting back up.

"About past injuries?" asked Lexington.

Matt looked at Lexington and said, "How did you-" Then he saw his cybernetic eyes and said, "Oh, I guess you can easily recognize that sort of thing."

"I guess so," said Lexington, "So my guess was right?"

"Yeah, I don't like to talk about it, but it's kinda almost the anniversary," said Matt, sadly.

"The anniversary of something awful?" asked Lexington, "Yeah, I get that feeling when I think about the massacre here."

"Guess we all have our demons," said Matt.

"Guess so," said Lexington, "Only, in your case, I think they're a bit more real."

Matt turned to go when his comm started beeping. "Hello? Lynch Taxidermy, you snuff em, we'll stuff em," he said

"Cute, Matt," said Chip's voice, "Now if you're in the mood, we've just picked up the Shar-Virk's signal."

"What? They're dead. We saw the ship go down ourselves...hell, we're gutting it," said Matt.

"We didn't see them die," said Chip, "And according to the laws of probability, that meant they might not have died."

"Plus there's our luck to take into account," said Matt, sighing, "I suppose we'd better check it out. Where's the signal coming from?" said Matt.

"Uh, would you believe Indonesia?" asked Chip.

"No," said Matt simply before sighing again. "But then again...suppose we can't risk it." Matt considered a moment and then said, "We'll have some of the crew go check it out. It's possible they may be planning a sneak attack here."

"You're sure you're not being paranoid?" asked Chip.

"Hey, remember the last time I was called paranoid? We had to attack a hugeass battlecruiser in the Atlantic. What fun it was," Matt retorted sarcastically

"Point made," said Chip, "Who shall we send and who shall stay?"

"Send Chris, Wilson, Techo, and Talia with Delta squad, they're the most rested," said Matt.

"I shall arrange for that," said Chip, "and what about our side?"

"Sunup's only half an hour away," said Matt, "We're gonna have to beef up security while the gargoyles sleep."

"I'll see to that," said Chip before signing off.

Matt turned to Lexington and said, "You might as well get ready for sleep. By the way, when you sleep, do those implants turn to stone too?"

"Actually, they kinda go into sleep mode, like a computer," said Lexington.

Matt pondered this for a minute and said, "Why the heck not? Coldstone's got so many cybernetic implants, he doesn't turn to stone."

--

Matt and the group stood watch around the castle as the dawn slowly approached. "Can you imagine we just narrowly avoided be keelhauled by Chloe?" asked Draco.

"Narrow doesn't cover it. I'd tell you what happened when we had that special operation in New York, but she'd rip my vocal chords out and strangle me with them," said Matt

Draco gulped audibly and said, "Yikes, hate to get on the wrong side of her anyways. How comes she's taking this so seriously while everyone is basically passing it off?"

"Erm...it ended badly for her. She's sore about it," said Matt, looking around in case Chloe was in earshot

"Out of curiosity, have any of you guys ever thought of having a child?" asked Contrinus.

"Maybe, when everything's settled down and we're not being chased by psychotic hamster emperors then yes...a family would be nice," said Matt before adding bitterly, "It's not like the A-001 barriers going anywhere."

Draco looked thoughtful and said, "Well, I may be interested, but not like this. Being a father's ok, but I don't want to wait 10 years for my egg to hatch."

"Well, you two do make a cute couple but you're right. Ten years is TOO long," said Matt.

"Of course, I can't feel comfortable with this until I'm sure Virustoxico won't be there to threaten my family," said Draco.

"I hope that day may come sooner than later," said Contrinus, hugging Draco's chest.

Kala walked up behind the hugging duo and said, "What a coincidence," exchanging an evil smirk with Contrinus and winking at her before saying, "What do you think are good names, Matt?" Matt however seemed to have gone catatonic and was making a funny bubbling noise in the back of his throat.

"Oh, not Matt Jr.," said Contrinus, "Way too egotistical."

"I was kinda hoping that we'd have a daughter," said Kala.

Around then, NegaMorph came outside and noticed Matt's pale complexion. "Hey, are guys messing wtih Matt's psyche?" he asked.

"A little bit," said Kala, "Mostly about future families."

"Can I join in?" he asked.

"Sure thing," said Draco, "You think Matt would make a great father?"

Contrinus however noticed Matt had started to giggle faintly...always a bad sign. "Erm, I think we might be going too far," she said.

"Hang on a sec," said NegaMorph, "I haven't had my shot yet. Personally, I'd hate to be him when the baby comes due. Kala's gonna crush his fingers into a pulp."

This was the final straw as Matt shrieked, blasted NegaMorph and ran off. The others looked down at NegaMorph. "Contrinus did warn you. Oh I hope Matt doesn't happen to someone," said Kala, looking in the direction Matt had ran.

"Ow..." moaned NegaMorph. He looked up at Draco and Contrinus and said, "Well don't you two lovebirds just stare, help me find the pieces of my legs."

--

Meanwhile, Matt had managed to find the way to the courtyard and had screamed a bit till he felt alot better. A family was a nice thought, until your friends used it to try and send you crazy...er. As such, he was in a good position to see Omnirus X0 land in front of where he was in the shadows.

"Guards probably haven't all left yet," muttered Omnirus to herself, "But I bet Ghostjaws can help me find one of those inhibitors. At least then I'll be able to shift back to my male form."

"You know, stealing really isn't your thing," said a draconic voice behind her. Omnirus turned to see Matt in dragon form come out from the shadows.

Omnirus growled angrily at Matt, but something felt wrong. She definitely hated Matt as much as before, but seeing him in his dragon form and not raging against her made her insides feel all soft and squeamish. Omnirus had enough genetic programming to realize what was going on. "Oh no, please, anything but that and anyone but HIM!" she said as she realized she'd been stuck in X0 form so long that draconic hormones were kicking in.

Matt raised an eyebrow and asked, "Do I want to know what's going on in your head right now?"

Omnirus glared. "No, not really," she said and spat an exploding fireball at him. Matt easily dodged it and was getting ready to respond with his own fireball. "Uh, you I would rather ask anyone in the universe besides you," said Omnirus, "But you don't have a spare inhibitor lying around, would you?"

Matt stared. "What? You came to trade? Why should I give you of all people an Inhibitor?"

"You have any idea what it's like to have a male mind inside a female body?" asked Omnirus.

"Briefly," said Matt, not wanting to go into details.

"Well, it's not fun for me. People don't take me seriously, going to the bathroom's always awkward, and I think my sexual attraction's starting to shift."

Matt grinned evilly. "And so the worm turns... I, the person who you have chased and at one point tried to lobotomize last month, have the only device that may help you. Hmm...let me think..." he said.

Omnirus leaned forward eagerly. "Well?" she said.

Matt smirked. "Closer," he muttered and Omnirus leaned closer only to have Matt yell as loud as his draconic body would let him, "NOT A CHANCE IN ANY Z CLASS DIMENSION YOU CARE TO NAME!!!"

"Oh come on!" whined Omnirus, "I wish I didn't have to, but I'm begging you. All this stupid estrogen is driving me insane!"

Matt laughed nastily. "Shoulda thought about that before you tried to kill me and my sister and my friends. Now smeg off before the gang get here."

Omnirus growled and said, "This all you and your sister's fault. If you had cooperated like I wanted, I'd have your AI and be able to reach my ultimate form without looking stupid."

"Yeah...and I'd be a vegetable," said Matt, pushing Omnirus down and baring his teeth. "Now go away before I show you how much damage dragon teeth can do."

Omnirus's eyes started glowing as she said, "You're not the only one with dragon teeth." To prove this, she sank her fangs into his arm.

Matt roared and fell away, allowing Omnirus to fly up and away. "This isn't over!" she yelled before yelping as Chip and Chloe came out, shooting. Before Chip could a good fix on him with Chase's targeting system, Omnirus disappeared.

"Stupid invisibility," grumbled Chloe. Then she noticed the bleeding wounds on her brother's arm.

"I'm fine, it's just a scratch," said Matt, turning back to human. "I think her form trouble's getting to her," he said before telling them what happened. Chloe was clearly having trouble keeping a straight face. "Go ahead and laugh," said Matt, "Won't bother me." Chloe complied and started rolling on the floor.

"You know, I kinda sympathize with Omnirus," said Chip.

"What? You were stuck as a girl once?" asked Matt.

"I'd rather not talk about it," said Chip.

"Fine, can someone help Chloe so she can breathe," said Matt.

Chip picked up Chloe and asked, "So, do we still want to send out that party to investigate the Shar-Virk?"

"No. Call the teams back. Omnirus is more than capable of sending a fake signal on his...her own," said Matt. This promptly started Chloe laughing again and Chip started shaking her to make her stop. Suddenly, Chase started beeping something. "What the heck is your R2-D2 clone saying?" said Matt

Chip listened for a second. "It's a communication from Chris's team."

"What does it say?" asked Matt.

"It says that they're being held back by some really bad weather. They won't be going anywhere for a while," said Chip.

"Crap, it's just us...wait, what kind of weather?" said Matt.

"They say it's a violent blizzard, which is odd because I thought the region they'd be in would be too warm for snow," said Chip, still shaking Chloe around to shake all the laughs out of her.

Matt gulped. "Remember the pointy eared weirdos?" he said

"Yes," said Chip, "You don't think that..."

"No, too much coincidences tonight for me to feel comfortable...and for heavens sake stop shaking Chloe, she's turning green," said Matt.

"Oh, right," said Chip as he put Chloe back on the ground.

Chloe immediately fell over. "Urgh...make the world stop spinning," she said.

"Too bad it's daytime," said Chip, "We'll have to make sure that no one smashes the gargoyles."

Matt shrugged. "Who'd be stupid enough to take us on?" he said.

Just then, what looked like a crate harnessed to a giant helium balloon started floating down into the courtyard. "Ok, is it someone's birthday?" asked Matt. Chase wandered up to the crate and lasered the lock off. The crate immediately fell apart to reveal half a dozen Sharkticons. "Oh no, not these guys again," said Matt, firing his blaster.

The Sharkticons quickly scattered, intent on chewing up anything they could get their jaws around. Matt blasted one trying to climb up to Greame's rock form and Chloe managed to grab another, plunging her ion blade into its head. One of them ran after Chase who ran back to Chip. Chip picked him up and converted him into his gun mode before blasting the Sharkticon that was chasing him.

The last three scattered, trying to break into the ventilation system. "Stop em! If they get in there, we'll never stop them," said Matt, throwing a plasma orb at one.

Chloe tried to electrocute them, but that just made them charge her. Chip picked one up by its tail, but it chomped onto one of his arms. It gnawed away hungrily at Chip's arm, trying to tear through the armor plating. It suddenly went limp...Chloe had torn its CPU out. "Thanks for that," said Chip.

Matt was getting another plasma orb ready for the last one when it opened its mouth wider, revealing a drill where its tongue might be. The drill began to spin, emitting a dreadful whining sound, but that wasn't the worst. The displaced air was like a suction pump, drawing Matt towards the deadly drill. Matt tried blasting it, but the disturbed air was throwing off his aim. He finally scored a hit that caused the drill to go askew and rip through the top of the Sharkticon's mouth, destroying it. "Bloody seafood," muttered Matt, "Is that all of them?"

"Yes," said Chloe, "and I thought those guys were bad in the water."

Matt nodded. "They were the last time. Hey Chip, you ok?" he said.

"I'll be fine," said Chip, "I think it's just a flesh wound. Well, relatively speaking." Suddenly the wound in his arm started giving off marigold sparks and all of Chip's body started to twitch. Then it let off a large wave of indigo energy.

The group all jumped. "CHIP!" yelled Chloe before they had to dodge Chip's falling form.

Matt managed to flip Chip over and opened his chest panel. "His Spark's okay," said Matt, "I think he's just out cold." Matt turned to his wristcomp and gulped. "Hey, my comp and inhibitor are dead. Is anyone's working?" he said. A quick check confirmed that every piece of electrical equipment had been forced into Reboot mode.

Chloe checked hers and said, "Mine's dead too." Chase was on his side, completely immobile.

Just then Xanatos came out. "What's going on here?" he demanded, "I heard fighting and suddenly everything downstairs just shut off."

"We noticed. Somebody just dropped an EMP on us. Everything's dead," said Matt, pointing at Chip and Chase for emphasis.

Chloe was still tampering with her wristcomp. "Not an EMP," she said, "It was some kind of a viral wave." She managed to get her wristcomp on briefly, just long enough for a marigold symbol shaped like an eye to appear.

Mantichrome," said Matt angrily, recognizing the symbol from Paris.

"And with Techo stuck on the other side of the globe and Chip in stasis lock, it's gonna take us hours to debug the whole place," said Chloe.

"Well, we better get started," said Xanatos, "Because I'm willing to bet my ridiculously enormous salary that we're going to be attacked soon."

"We need as much defenses rebooted as soon as we can. Start with security and work your way up. Purge the system," said Matt.

Chloe noticed a couple of storm clouds in the distance. "I'm guessing that's no coincidence," she said.

"If I know my meteorology," said Xanatos, "Those'll be on us by sundown."

"Great, any advice on battling demi-gods?" said Matt sarcastically.

"A little bit," said Xanatos, "Oberon himself tried to breach this building and he eventually succeeded. But he wasn't able to do so easily. Of course, we had the advantage that Oberon and his kind are vulnerable to iron. I don't think whatever's coming is all fae, and I'm not referring to the changelings."

"Yeah, seeing how Omnirus was here and how Mantichrome's apparently sent those infected Sharkticons, I guess we can expect more company," sighed Matt, "Can this get any-"

Before Matt could finish the sentence, Chloe tackled him and tried to cover up his mouth. Xanatos looked on with puzzlement and a bit of amusement. "Bad things tend to happen when Matt says that statement he was about to finish," she explained.

--

Meanwhile, Omnirus was getting a chewing-out from Ghoulwyrm. "What did I say about not attracting any attention?" demanded Ghoulwyrm, "You should have remained invisible at all times."

"How was I supposed to know Matt would be lurking in the shadows?" protested Omnirus.

That earned her a prompt slap to the face from Ghoulwyrm. "That is precisely why you _should_ have stayed invisible," he snarled.

Omnirus rubbed her cheek and said, "Well, sorry. I just wanted to get an inhibitor so I can get out of this stupid female mode."

"And another thing," said Ghoulwyrm, "You were only supposed to be there to check on how many people are left guarding it. I couldn't care less about your physical appearance, but I do care that it's causing you to skip out on your missions for something so trivial."

Mantichrome chuckled and said, "Well, what can you expect with a gender-confused hodgepodge like her?"

Omnirus glared at Mantichrome, but her angry retort was stolen by Ghoulwyrm. "And you, what were you thinking sending a crateful of Sharkticons drifting down with a balloon?" demanded the dracopyre, "We've got enough attention as it is without you practically sending a billboard to let them know we're here."

Mantichrome huffed and said, "Unlike our malformed companion, I had a more prudent objective regarding that. I've inserted a virus into the Sharkticons so that when one of them bites Chip, which has happened according to my readouts, it will cause him to release an electronic viral wave that will take everything electronic in the Xanatos building offline, including him."

This made Ghoulwyrm pause a moment to consider this. "So their defenses are neutralized?" he asked.

"Not permanently," admitted Mantichrome, "But without Chip or Techo there to fix the programming, they'll never be able to have it all up by the time we strike."

Ghoulwyrm smiled and said, "You see, Omnirus, this is called 'thinking ahead'. Something you need to practice more. You have done well, Mantichrome."

"It was a clever move," admitted Sekhmet, "With their defenses weakened, the castle shall be much easier to take."

Ghoulwyrm's grin widened further as he said, "And then we will be able to pick them all off, one by one."

* * *

There's another chapter. I find this chapter to be rather entertaining, particularly the part about Omnirus' suffering and Matt being teased. I think this chapter also cements the relationship between Matt & Kala and Draco & Contrinus. But of course, there's a rather serious part in this chapter. With defenses down, Chip out cold, and about half of the Bladestorm's marines stuck on the other side of the world with Chris, Wilson, Techo, and Talia, the gang and clan are going to have a very tough fight up ahead. This is truely the calm before the storm. The next chapter will entail the battle, so you will definitely not want to miss it. Not sure when it'll be up, but I'll being having the first chapter of a little Halloween story up soon. Until then, please review.


	8. Revenge of the Mocked

**Voyager Saga**

**Change of Soul**

**Chapter 8: Revenge of the Mocked**

Xanatos was right about the stormclouds. It did reach New York just as the sun was setting. It was only a thunderstorm, but it was a particularly loud and flashy storm.

"Bloody lightning!" yelled Matt at the storm clouds after the fifth roll of thunder started a headache. Sadly the storm seemed to take some offence at this and he was struck by lightning. Matt was a bit disorientated so he made a rather stupid boast, "Ha, everyone knows that lightning never strikes the same place twice." He was promptly hit by four other lightning bolts.

Morph noticed Matt's inadvertent shaking and said, "I wanna dance funny too." He touched Matt and immediately got shocked.

"I...h-a-t-t-t-e st-o-r-m-s-s-s" stuttered Matt before falling over.

"Well, that was an interesting light show," said NegaMorph in a bored tone, "But we still haven't gotten anything back online except for Chip and his shooting friend, as well as those two cybergoyles."

"Medic," whimpered Matt from where he'd collapsed.

Chloe however had spotted a more sinister version of the storm. "Dammit, there's no way to get anyone here now. Lifts are down and now no choppers or pelicans," she said before looking at her brother. "STOP ROASTING MARSHMALLOWS ON MY BROTHER, NEGAMORPH!"

"Well, I would do it with PlasMorph," said NegaMorph, "But I don't think his smoke would add anything positive to the flavor."

Chloe glared. "Would you like to pull double duty as lookout on the main tower?" she said, pointing to where the tower was...and how it was acting as a lightning rod itself.

"Fine, fine," said NegaMorph.

"Do it again! Do it again!" piped Morph, who had just woke up from his zapping.

Chloe glared at him before looking at NegaMorph. "Fine, just clean him up when you're done."

Apparently, the sun just set, because there was a crackling in the air that wasn't coming from Matt's hair. With a cacophony of roars, the gargoyles shed their stone shells and stretched their limbs.

Draco flew down first. "Wow, what's with the weird weather...oh...thunderstorm?" he said as he saw where Matt was gently crackling with static in the corner.

"It's been like this for the last hour," said Chloe, "Also, Mantichrome sent a virus that caused everything electronic to go offline. We've only managed to get Chip, Chase, Coldstone, and Coldsteel working."

"Which probably means Manty and his mates plan to throw us a lovely surprise visit with extra explosions," said Matt.

"Well that's just great," said Brooklyn, "What do we have on our side?"

"Us," said Matt simply.

Goliath rubbed his forehead and moaned, "This does not look good for us. Who is this Mantichrome and his allies?"

"HEY!" yelled Matt angrily as Chloe sniggered.

"Well, luckily we have experience with Manichrome's usual friends, but they don't usually make weather," said NegaMorph.

"But the Unseelie can," said Broadway, "You don't think..."

"Half of our guys are stranded on the other side of the world because of a blizzard," said Chloe flatly, "Yes, I do think so."

"What are we so worried about? Every time we met these pointy-eared nutters we've creamed them," said Matt confidently.

"Those were just changelings," said Angela, "Human/faerie hybrids. I think we're dealing with actual fae here."

Matt's face fell. "So...able to go through us like the experiments go through coffee?" he said, simply getting nods. "Ah smeg."

Suddenly, the lightning started flashing more rapidly and had changed to a bright purple in color. Then a big flash of lightning appeared in the courtyard which caused everyone to shield their eyes. When the light faded, three dragons were standing in the courtyard. Of course, the term 'dragon' is being used in the broadest sense of the word, seeing as how one was a robot, one was an undead alien, and the other was a mixture of alien parts.

Matt gulped. It was easy to guess who. "Ghoulwyrm, so nice to see you again. How are the plasma burns?" he said, igniting an orb behind his back.

"Oh, I eventually heal from wounds," said Ghoulwyrm, "but the memory of what caused them lingers longer."

"So...would you mind doing a last request?" said Matt.

"Surrendering already?" said Ghoulwyrm, "A rather wise choice, but not one that will spare you. But I may be willing to honor last requests, as long as it's not the usual begging and groveling."

"Good...would you explode in a shower of shadow energy?" said Matt, smirking evilly.

Ghoulwyrm looked confused for a second until a blast of darkness hit him in the back. He was buffeted, but far from weakened. One of his eyes slid back to glare at NegaMorph behind him. "You underestimate me," growled Ghoulwyrm, "A deadly mistake." Then he raised both arms up and roared, "ATTACK!"

Omnirus lunged at Matt straight away, clawing at Matt's inhibitor. "GIVE IT TO ME, YOU LITTLE PAIN IN THE TAILBONE!" she yelled.

Matt grinned evilly and said loudly, "You haven't changed a bit since you were last here, Omnirus, except for your sex of course." Omnirus screamed angrily and punched Matt, sending him sailing across the courtyard and into a wall. "...ow," Matt said.

Before Matt could move, Omnirus used XLRWolf speed to run over and grab him by the neck. "So what?" said Matt weakly, "You gonna rip out my tongue or something?"

"Muting you would be a pleasure," said Omnirus, "But I think castration is in order here." To emphasize this, she shifted her Diamondblast arm into a flaming spike.

Matt transformed himself to dragon form and sent a blast of flame into Omnirus's face. Omnirus flinched and Matt was able to use leverage to get himself away from the wall. Omnirus roared and was about to go after Matt when someone grabbed her tail. She looked behind to see Chloe in her dragon form. "You're starting to make me look bad," she said.

--

Meanwhile, Ghoulwyrm was tussling with Goliath. Goliath was on the defensive mostly because of Ghoulwyrm's lightning blasts. "This is the great leader of the Manhattan Clan?" scoffed Ghoulwyrm, "I've seen bats fight back better than you."

An energy blast shot into Ghoulwyrm suddenly. The dracolich spun round snarling only for a second blast to hit him in the chest. Brooklyn walked forward, his pulse rifle braced against his shoulder before firing again. "Leadership isn't about how you fight in battle," said Brooklyn, "It's about how you lead others in battle."

Ghoulwyrm snarled. "So? I brought the Atlantean empire to its knees using its own forces."

"Your Atlantis, maybe," said Brooklyn, "But things are different here."

"You think you can take me?" said Ghoulwyrm, "Then bring it on."

"Not by myself," admitted Brooklyn, "But with a little help from the family..."

Ghoulwyrm looked confused. "Say what?" he said and suddenly his legs were pulled from under him, landing him on his snout with a painful crunch. Ariana and Greame had sneaked up on him and pulled his legs from under him. "I hate kids," mumbled Ghoulwyrm.

"Thank you Brooklyn," said Goliath, "I did need some help back there."

"Always glad to provide it," said Brooklyn.

"You'll need more help with that when I'm through with-" started Ghoulwyrm before he was cut off by both Goliath and Brooklyn punching him in the jaw.

--

Mantichrome was not having it as good. He had three opponents. Draco, Chip and Contrinus were all against him. "Not so easy when we're not so small, is it?" asked Draco as he threw another punch.

"True," said Mantichrome, "But at least you don't have your old powers as gargoyles. But experiment or gargoyle, I will terminate you." This was followed by a slashing blow from Mantichrome's claws. Draco roared in pain as the slash left a row of slashes on his chest. Mantichrome smirked. "One down, several more to go."

"You think some scratches will end this?" said Draco.

"No," said Mantichrome, "but lacing them with poison gas might." Then he opened his mouth and breathed out noxious fumes.

Draco gasped as the poison seeped into the wound and he fell from the sky, unconscious. Contrinus shrieked and lunged at Mantichrome, eyes glowing red. "Ooh, is the firebird mad I hurt her precious mate?" asked Mantichrome mockingly as he stabbed at Contrinus with his stinger. Contrinus rolled around the stab and tackled Mantichrome, slashing and stabbing at the machine in a mindless fury. "While I would enjoy the idea of smashing your eggs," said Mantichrome, "I'm on a tighter agenda today." Then he reached around sank his fangs into Contrinus' shoulder. Contrinus shrieked in pain, but was so marinated in adrenaline, she just shoved her fist into his face, leaving a sizable dent. "So it's true," said Mantichrome, "The female does fight most fiercely if it's for her family. Good thing I'm incapable of such attachments. But let's see how fat this fury can take you?" Then a small port opened on Mantichrome side and some oil shot out and hit Contrinus in the face. Contrinus spluttered as the oil got in her eyes and mouth, letting go for a minute and leaving her open. Mantichrome could have finished her then, but he'd forgotten the third attacker.

Chip grabbed Mantichrome in his fist and said, "How does it feel to be trapped in my grip?"

Mantichrome managed to say in a croaking voice, "Painful."

"You know, I don't appreciate you siccing your diseased Sharkticons on me," said Chip.

"I'm glad I get to finish the job myself," said Mantichrome, "If there's anything worse than an organic, it's a machine who has bonded with an organic." Mantichrome didn't manage to finish his rant as Chip hammered him up to the neck servos in the castle courtyard cobblestones. "...ouch...again," said Mantichrome in a distorted voice

"If this your idea of an attack, it's a pretty bad joke," said Chip as he landed.

"The joke's on you," said Mantichrome, "This is only the first wave. VR LAUNCH!" Suddenly, two disk-shaped devices which the Sharkticons had dropped earlier and remained undetected activated. Two poles extended from them and an aurora formed between them.

"VR Generators," said Chip.

"You got right, tin can," said Mantichrome before he burrowed all the way down into the lower floor of the castle.

Before Chip could go after him, the Monstercons and Sharkticons emerged from the aurora field. "Oh slag," he groaned.

--

Matt and Omnirus managed to look over from where they were trying to kill each other in time to see several Sharkticons heading for them. It seemed Mantichrome had forgot to add Omnirus to the friend list.

"The second wave's starting?" asked Omnirus, "I thought our guys were coming first."

"What? You trusted tin can over there...LOOK OUT!" he said pushing her out the way of a lunging Sharkticon and blasting it as it tried to turn around.

"I don't need your help," said Omnirus, "I can deal with these can-opening sardines myself." Her Stinkgrade wings stretched out and attached to two Sharkticons, causing them to focus on Matt.

Matt blasted the first one and tore the CPU out of another. "You know, you'd make a good merc," he said, meaning it seriously.

"If by that, you mean 'gun for hire', I suppose I do," said Omnirus, "But if you mean a merc like you, I'm afraid I have to inform you that I don't play by the rules." To prove that, she kicked Matt between the legs, which sent him flying towards a Sharkticon's waiting jaws.

Luckily the storm seemed to want to torture Matt a bit more, shocking the Sharkticon first. "Oh, maybe storms are useful after...ARGH!" said Matt as another lightning bolt hit him. "Never mind," he said.

"Matt, we've got a problem," said Chip, "Draco's been poisoned, Contrinus is temporarily sightless, Mantichrome just got into the castle and..." Suddenly four robotic monsters surrounded Matt. "And you can guess the last part."

"Just shoot them while I recover from being the human lightning rod," said Matt.

Omnirus saw the Monstercons about to tear into Matt and thought, '_Well, he did prevent that one Sharkticon from getting me. Oh, who am I kidding? This is to get back at Mantichrome for forgetting to put the safety on his tuna canneries._' She swallowed a severed Sharkticon leg and spat out as an explosive slime ball towards the Monstercons.

Matt just stared at Omnirus. He could see Chip busy fighting more of the Sharkticons trying to get into the vents like last time. He looked over at her and pulled out a data crystal before tossing it over. "There, inhibitor research, it'll be a start," he said before adding, "Now get lost. Mantichrome'll stab you in the spine when you aren't looking."

"I'm not going anywhere," said Omnirus after storing the crystal away, "I said I was going to reduce this castle to rubble and that's what I'm going to do. Especially now that reliable backup is here."

Matt just sighed. "Just remember what I said..." he said before a dark energy blast knocked him down. Chang, Bananas B, and Leroy, Chang's staff still smoking, stepped out a portal.

"Ah, Mr. Lynch," said Chang, "I was hoping I'd find you here." Leroy laughed nastily, his drool mixing with the rain on the ground.

"First off, get some new pets," said Matt, "Second, are you going to try to skin me now? Because you've tried that and it didn't work."

Chang smirked evilly. "No. I promised to let our ally try you out. Meet Loki."

"Loki? Like the Norse trickster Loki?" asked Matt. Suddenly, he found himself dangling from one angle in midair.

"That's 'Norse god of mischief' to you," said Loki as he appeared beside Chang, "But yeah, that's me."

"Evening. I loved you in _The Mask_," said Matt, unable to resist the usual annoying opening to new villains. He felt it was fair to warn them about what kind of person they were kidnapping before he started singing.

"Yes, I thought it was a rather accurate depiction," said Loki, "Of course, that's only a mortal with all my powers and no inhibitions, but I think it reflects me. But I bet you know what it's like to be uninhibited."

"I blew up a station on my first week on the job...a really big one," said Matt. Chang looked confused. The torturer and the torturee were not supposed to get friendly.

"Heh, not bad for a start," said Loki, "Of course, that's just sci-fi. How do you do in fantasy?" To start off, Loki caused a pitcher full of ice to appear and start pouring ice cubes down, or rather up, Matt's pants leg.

Matt glared and blasted Loki's head with his plasma breath. "Do I pass, Mr. Crispy?" said Matt, grinning evilly.

"Pish-posh," said Loki, wiping the soot away, "Now if you really want to be chaotic..."

Suddenly, a pair of winged sandals appeared on Matt's feet. "Feathered footwear? Is that the best you got?" asked Matt. Suddenly, the sandals started flying all around, dragging Matt behind them. "Hey! Whoat! Cut that out! How do you stop these crazy things?!" shouted Matt.

The sandals had other ideas, bouncing Matt off, in the following order: a wall, another wall, a door, and finally around both ends of a flagpole.

Loki strolled over to where Matt was whimpering and pulled off the strange device on his wrist. "Nice, space age Rolex," he said.

"Uh, that's not a really smart thing to do..." started Chip before he was tackled by Roughshell.

Chang however actually agreed. "The annoying machine is right, Loki. Mr. Lynch has an...anti-social side."

"Oh? Well, I've been called anti-social myself," said Loki. Then he paused and said, "Actually, I believe Odin describes it as 'Get out of my sight, you pest'."

Matt had stood up behind him, his eyes glowing ruby red, complete with reptilian slits. "You know, sometimes the help knows what they're talking about, numbskull," he said in Draconus;s voice.

"Ooh, split personality," said Loki, "Never seen that before. But then again..." Suddenly a second Loki appeared behind Draconus and said, "Yes I have."

Draconus sneered. "I have the perfect solution for that. Unlike the gargoyles, collateral damage is just a collecton of letters to me, elf," he said and blasted both of the Loki's.

"Ooh, got a real tough guy, huh?" said the first Loki. Then his clothes switched to that of Clint Eastwood and said, "Show me what you got, punk."

"Fine," said Draconus and pulled out Matt's ion staff. "Know what this does to...anything?" he said with a smirk.

"Knowing you sci-fi geeks," said Loki, "That's probably a light saber. But let's see if you know how to swing it." Loki then pulled out his revolvers and started shooting at Matt. Of course, being Loki, the bullets were actually made of magical light that exploded upon contact.

Draconus dodged or blocked each one. "On other days, I'd appreciate this let out by killing everything in the city, but you're worse than Matt."

"But I can be far worse than that," said Loki and he suddenly pulled a humongous bazooka out of thin air.

Draconus managed to say, "I bet this never happened to Taleth," before a blast knocked him through the far wall.

--

Meanwhile, Chloe had just slain her seventh Sharkticon. "Mantichrome's got to do better than send mindless machines," she said.

"Then it's a good thing I am gifted with a great intellect," said a voice. Suddenly, a coil wrapped around her before electrocuting her.

Chloe yelled in pain before draining the electricity. She pulled the coil off and turned to see a metallic gargoyle. "Great, another robot," she said rudely

"I am no mere automaton, dear lady," said the cybergoyle, "I am Coldsteel, the rightful leader of the Manhattan Clan."

"Oh, the tin-plated loser," she said with a smirk. The other gargoyles had told the gang all about Coldsteel.

Coldsteel glared at her and said, "I must warn you, I am far mightier than you might have been lead to believe."

Chloe rolled her eyes and said, "Oh please, you're just a cowardly sneak who'd backstab anyone to get what you want."

"Flattery will get you nowhere," said Coldsteel as he brandished his coils.

The coils reached out to ensnare her, but she chopped them up to small bits. "I think you've got too big an opinion about yourself," said Chloe.

Coldsteel smirked as his coils regenerated. "And you, like all humans, are overconfident."

"No, you're the one that's-" started Chloe and stopped before saying, "Oh, this is getting us nowhere. Let's just try to smash each other and save on the conversation."

Coldsteel smirked again. "Finally, I was getting bored," and sent a cluster of his coils at Chloe. Chloe decided to do something different. She grabbed the coils and started swinging Coldsteel around. Coldsteel quickly got out of this method by firing his boosters in reverse, cancelling out the swing. Before Chloe could react he batted her down and readied a coil to stab her. "Stupid pitiful human," he said and winced as a blast of flame hit him in the back.

Coldsteel turned and his optics beheld Coldstone and Coldfire hovering nearby. "I knew you'd return to attack this castle again, brother," said Coldstone, "But I wouldn't imagine that you'd stoop to working with these... monsters."

"At least it's better than being the humans' guard dogs!" yelled Coldsteel

"You never could accept the gargoyle's way to protect," said Coldfire, "The only thing you'd ever seek to protect is your own worthless hide, whether it's made of flesh or metal."

"I simply possess the one thing none of you have; a care for myself." With that, Coldsteel lashed out with his whips to strike his brother and his mate.

Chloe, however, shared her brother's hate for being ignored and she plunged her ion blade into Coldsteel's back. Coldsteel cried out in pain, but turned to face Chloe. "A valiant effort, damsel," said Coldsteel, "But unlike my compatriot's clockwork leviathans, I am powered by a more resolute source."

"I'm sorry? Did I just hear that?" Chloe said, angrily. A second later, a hole the size of a dustbin lid had been blasted. "I AM NOT A DAMSEL!!!"

"She fights will great ferocity," commented Coldstone.

"Of course," said Coldfire, "She's a woman."

Coldstone was about to question but then shrugged it off saying, "10th century or 20th century, human or gargoyle, flesh or metal, females can never be comprehended."

Coldsteel was now trying to get Chloe off his back where she was trying to unscrew his head. "WHO'S IN DISTRESS NOW, EH?" she yelled, displaying the trademark Lynch insanity streak.

Coldstone looked at Coldfire who just shrugged. "I think that is simple battle craze," she said.

"Some sort of craze to be certain," muttered Coldstone.

--

Mantichrome however had managed to slip his pursuers for now and was looking for the real reason he'd come to the castle.

"I hope those reports I've read are accurate," Mantichrome muttered to himself. He reached the Xanatos' study where a portrait of David Xanatos was hanging over the fireplace. Mantichrome looked at it for a second. "Reminds me of Star Trek for some reason," he said before tossing the picture aside.

Underneath was what he was looking for; Xanatos's private safe. Of course, being Xanatos, he equipped it with one of the most complicated locking mechanisms available. "Heh, they may as well have a 'keep out' for all the good it would do," said Mantichrome as he inserted one finger into an input receiver. The screen on the keypad flashed many numbers before the lock opened.

Inside were a couple of interesting items, including a rolled-up scroll and a Mayan-looking sun talisman. But what he was truly seeking was a hand-sized glass container that held a purple liquid inside. He took the vial and said, "This is going to take care of a lot of problems for me."

Meanwhile, Ghoulwyrm was still fighting Brooklyn and his family. He was sending out poison spells and various blasts in every direction to little luck. "JUST STAY STILL AND DIE!" he screamed

"Sorry, we don't take orders from you," said Greame.

"Obedience can be taught," said Ghoulwyrm as a bandage wrapped around Brooklyn and tossed him aside, "It just requires discipline to make the lesson sink in."

Ariana and Greame backed up a bit. "You would hit a kid...would you?" said Ariana.

Ghoulwyrm paused for a second. "Erm...come to think of it...YES!" he said and hit them both with his bandages.

Sata snarled as her eyes flashed red. "You will pay for hurting my children," she said.

"I think you should consider your own pain," said Ghoulwyrm and he sent a lightning bolt that hit Sata's sword. The charge went through the metal and electrocuted her. Bronx and Nudnik ran at Ghoulwyrm from behind. The dracolich didn't even turn, just sending out more bandages to flick them aside. "Anyone else?" he said smugly

Suddenly, different barking was heard and Weirdwolf flew out of nowhere. He zoomed straight at Ghoulwyrm and bit down onto his ear. Ghoulwyrm roared and pained and managed to pull Weirdwolf off. "Useless mongrel," he hissed, "You should have known better than to show your traitorous muzzle in front of me again." He raised his arm high and slammed Weirdwolf into the ground with all his strength.

He was about to finish off the yelping mutant dog when a blast of darkness hit him in the back. "ARGH! WHO DARES?" he yelled, forgetting Weirdwolf for the moment. His eyes spun around his neck grooves to see Lady NegaMorph, her hand still smoke from the attack. "I might have known," said Ghoulwyrm as he turned to face her, "The little alien wench whose feeble sorcery's been proving a constant thorn in my army-building plans."

"Leave Weirdwolf alone," said Megan, "If you had double-checked your source materials, you would have known he could have defected eventually. If you want to deal with him, you have to deal with me first."

"If you insist," said Ghoulwyrm as he brandished his claws.

Ghoulwyrm started slashing his claws at Megan. However, she proved too lithe for him to catch, especially since she had 'inherited' her uncle's ability to become semi-solid. "I've had enough of this!" shouted Ghoulwyrm and he split his muzzle down the middle. He immediately let out the full force of his sonic howl ability, causing Megan to scream, clutching her head. Once she was disorientated, Ghoulwyrm electrified his fist and punched her straight in the gut. The blow knocked her off her feet and sent her into a wall. She groaned as she fell to the ground, her body reverting to her human form as it did.

He picked her up by the throat. "I'm going to enjoy this," he said, readying his claws to tear her throat open. Suddenly, a much stronger version of Megan's shadow attack hit him in the side, sending him through a wall as well as making him drop Megan

As he got up, he saw NegaMorph glaring at him. "Don't you dare touch my niece!" he shouted before lunging at Ghoulwyrm. However, Ghoulwyrm responded by blasting him point-blank with a torrent of plasma-fire. NegaMorph staggered back under the fire before it finally stopped. "Is that all you've...oh crap." said NegaMorph as Ghouwyrm smashed a piece of masonry on him.

Ghoulwyrm was about to finish with NegaMorph when a shrill wailing caught his ears. "What's this?" he said. He turned intangible and drifted through the wall. He found himself in a nursery where a toddler was crying in his crib. "Well, isn't this a pleasant surprise?" said Ghoulwyrm as he floated over the child, "I haven't had babe's flesh in centuries."

Ghoulwyrm licked his lips and reached for the toddler when he heard someone behind him clearing his throat. He turned to see a blond man in a business suit behind him. "How did you...get lost Jeeves or you're dessert," he said.

"I shall give you only one warning," said Owen, "Step away from Master Alex or there shall be consequences to face."

"Yeah right. Get lost, suity man," said Ghoulwyrm, turning back to his 'dinner'.

"Very well then," said Owen as he put his glasses in his shirt pocket, "You were warned." Suddenly, he suddenly started spinning around at a fantastic speed. When he stopped, he was wearing gaily-colored medieval clothing, his air was long and white, and his ears were pointed. "Iiiiit's showtime!" he called in a much cheerier voice.

Goulwyrm actually stopped for a second. This was probably the fatal mistake he made. Draconus would have agreed if he'd currently been conscious. "Who the heck are you supposed to be?" asked Ghoulwyrm, "Peter Pan?"

"I am the Puck," said the faerie, "and you were about to eat my young pupil. How about something more chewy instead?" Suddenly, Ghoulwyrm found his mouth filled entirely with bubble gum.

Gholwyrm opened his secondary mouth. "YOU LITTLE PAIN IN THE...ooh, strawberry flavor."

"You know, you could really use a facelift," said Puck, "You look all skin and bones." Suddenly, a powder puff, a lipstick, and several paintbrushes appeared out of nowhere and laid siege to Ghoulwyrm's face.

Ghoulwyrm blasted the attacking beauty gear to see his face had been made out like a circus clown's. "I'm...going to kill you slow," he said, turning on Puck to find he'd vanished

"It's been tried, but never done," said Puck's voice, "If you try to find that, I think you'll find yourself in over a barrel." Suddenly, wooden planks appeared around Ghoulwyrm and nailed themselves together to form a giant barrel.

Ghoulwyrm smirked and punched the barrel...only to hurt himself. "HEY! NO FAIR!" he yelled, trying to fire blast it, only for it to rebound on him.

"What? Don't you like to monkey around?" asked Puck. Suddenly, Ghoulwyrm found himself beset by hundreds of toy monkeys. Ghoulwyrm luckily began yelling a few magical curses, one of which turned into something which took one look at Puck and scuttled off squealing.

"You know, I hear Abu Dhabi is nice to time of year," said Puck. He conjured a postage stamp into his hand. He licked the stamp and placed it on the barrel. "Send me a postcard!" called Puck as the barrel suddenly took off like a space shuttle.

--

Matt opened his eyes to a small world of pain around his face area. He could hear Draconus complaining. _'Dammit...you can have the next fae...I'm having a rest.'_

"Dear lord, what did he hit me with? A bullet train?" moaned Matt as he got up. Unfortunately, his blood flow didn't quite keep up with the shift of gravitational center so Matt was feeling really dizzy.

Matt staggered around till he was grabbed by someone. "Thanks, Chloe...hey...when did you get your EXP form back?" he said, feeling the fur on the person holding him. He looked at his helper's face and said, "Maggie, what are you doing here? And since when were you a quadruplet?"

'Maggie' brought a fist down on Matt's head, which sadly didn't help his eyesight. "Ow...wait a second..." he said, shaking his head to clear his eyesight. "Uh oh," he said as he focused more on 'Maggie'. "You're...not with us...are you," he said

"Battle-dazed? I've seen that a lot," said the Egyptian Unseelie, "Behold the glory of Sekhmet, she who was once The Eye of Ra, the supreme huntress of the land of Egypt."

Matt looked at her in a dazed way as she introduced herself then grinned evilly. "You have no idea what I can do, do you?" he said.

"I've seen countless warriors in battle, many with unique abilities," said Sehkmet, "I doubt that you could do anything to surprise me."

"Ok, fair enough, can you fly?" Matt said, grinning even wider. The only thing better then a proud enemy was one that didn't know what you were about to do to them

Sekhmet glared with annoyance and said, "Of course I can fly. I am of the Third Race. You are a simple imitation of a legend. And not a rather admirable legend at that."

"Can you fly with multiple third degree burns?" said Matt, treasuring Sekhmet's confused and then horrified face as he blasted her at point blank range into a wall. "Well that was...fun?" said Matt, the satisfaction in his voice trailing off when he saw that Sekhmet was only slightly singed.

"A remarkable form of combat," she said, "But now behold the power of an Egyptian goddess!" Then a ball of solar energy like a small sun appeared in her hand.

"Oh bugger," Matt said before the ball of energy hit him in the face. Sekhmet smirked. "Useless mortal," she said before a ball of fire hit her in the back.

She turned around and glared at Kala, who was preparing another ball of fire in her hand. "I don't like you hitting Matt like that," she said, "Particularly when he's been battered so much. How about you pick on someone with plenty of fight left in her?"

Semkhet snarled. "With pleasure," she said and threw another energy ball at Kala who flipped to avoid it. Matt had managed to sit up after the blast and was staring in shock and a little pride, part of that was his training in action.

Sekhmet and Kala continued to throw fireballs at each other. Only a few of them hit home on either side, but neither were hardly tired. "How about we make this more interesting?" said Kala, "You're the Egyptian goddess of war, right? Surely you know how to fight hand-to-hand without magic."

"An intriguing proposition," said Sekhmet, "Very well then." She extinguished the fireball she had in her hand and adopted a different fighting stance.

Matt and Loki by now seemed to have set their differences aside temporarily and in classic merc style, Matt had already had a bet on how long Kala would need to twist Sekhmet up like a pretzel.

The two female fighters were a sight to behold. Sekhmet had literally centuries of practice under her belt, but Kala's superhuman agility and strength, not to mention the unique nature of her combat style, kept her toe-to-toe with the lioness.

Finally, Sekhmet seemed to get a grip on Kala, only for her to fall backwards squashing the fae against the cobbles. Kala heard Matt say, "HAH, told you she'd do that trick! Pay up, Loki," before rolling off Sekhmet who was already getting up, a little unsteadily but severely pissed off.

"Would you like a breather?" said Kala annoyingly

Sekhmet glared at her and panted, "I will...never submit...to a dragon's concubine..."

"Ooh, that'd burn," commented Loki, "Is it true that you and she have been doing the bedsheet worm?"

"How does everyone know this? Is there some kind of supernatural paparazzi following us?" he said before seeing how Kala's eyes were glowing white. Loki turned to talk to Matt again to see him missing. A voice from ground level said, "I'd duck unless you're extremely fireproof."

When Loki felt a large amount of heat in the air, he quickly threw himself to the ground in a sheltered spot. The blast of flame was so hot it was pure white and when it went into a wall there wasn't even molten rock...just vapor. Matt and Loki slowly looked at it. Loki said, "That brings being 'hot' to a whole new level."

Sekhmet was in the middle of a crater, unconscious and looking as if a meteor hit her. Kala was standing over her, angrily huffing, steam coming off her body, and her hair disheveled. "Ooh, you are in luck tonight brother," said Loki, "If either of you live, you're gonna get angry sex like you won't believe." Loki actually backed up from the double glare. "Er...I'll be over there," he said before teleporting over to where Brooklyn was fighting a bunch of redcaps. "Damn, can't let them have all the fun."

"Ugh, is this going to be a long night," moaned Matt. He heard a mechanical whirring to his left and turned to see a small red optic and four green mechanical legs. "Not now, Leafstripper, I need to take five," said Matt. Suddenly, Matt found the world was upside down...and a very large mechanical face looking at him. Monstructor wasn't much of an improvement from the wrong way up. "Oh hell, can't I get a break?" he said

"Useless fleshling," intoned Monstructor, "Your termination commencing now." Matt looked to see Monstructor's other arm coming towards him, the 'fingers' crackling with energy.

Matt raised a hand. "One last request...what's that screaming noise?" he said. The 'screaming' turned out to be Ghoulwyrm's barrel, now with a giant post-it note with the words 'Stop littering our city, Puck.' The shock from impact threw Monstructor's balance off.

This was all Matt needed to slip out of Monstructor's grip and backflip away from him. Three feet to the left of where he landed, Puck appeared with a puff of magic. "Hmm, perhaps I should have used more postage," he said to himself.

Matt jumped. "Who the hell are you?" he said before grabbing Puck. "Are you with those idiots?" he said.

"Now, Master Lynch," said Puck, a pair of glasses and a somber look appearing on his face, "I would think someone like you would remember not to harm one of the household."

Matt stared. "I always thought there was something weird about you, Owen. You looked too harmless," he said.

Suddenly, the barrel exploded a blast of purple hellfire. There was too much smoke to see, but something in there was giving off an angry roar. "Ah, I was wondering who was in there," said Matt. It was, indeed, Ghoulwyrm and from the sound of things, he was one very small distance from going nuts

Chip landed near Matt. Though his chassis was marred, dented, and cracks in several places, he was still in good shape. "Matt, we've got trouble," said Chip, "Remember how I mentioned that Ghoulwyrm might have retained a super mode?"

"Not really, maybe you mentioned it before I got my mind wiped?" said Matt a bit coldly.

Chip sighed, "Stop holding a grudge. It was only once. Anyways, I believe Ghoulwyrm has indeed kept his super mode and it seems it's been activated by his extreme anger."

"Erm...how angry does he need to be?" said Matt, the usual culprit for such anger before shrugging. "Ah, we've beaten worse. How hard could it be...oh shit."

At that point, Ghoulwyrm emerged from the smoke. If it weren't for the purple coloration and the lightning rods on his back, Matt would have never recognized him. Now he resembled a large demonic werepyre covered in purple flames. Tatters of clothing hung around his black fur and his roaring sounded something unholy and completely savage.

Matt stared at the new Ghoulwyrm in horror. "Guys...please warn me the next time I piss him off," he said in a faint voice.

The redcaps took one look at the dracopyre and started fleeing. Even the remaining Sharkticons looked nervous. "Ah, the new Dragon of Darkness is more powerful than I thought," said Chang.

"He's scarier than I thought, that's for certain," said Bananas.

Ghoulwyrm's new form seemed to have not got the list of allies as he started attacking everyone within range, regardless of who's team they were part of. Matt quickly dived out of the way to avoid being hit by a blast of hellfire. "Ok, you said you've dealt with him like this before," said Matt, "How did you stop him then?"

"Well," said Chip, "We were able to whip together a voodoo salve that doused his anger, but I don't think we have enough time to get any ingredients."

"So...basically we're stuffed then," said Matt.

Then Megan came tottering over. "Oh," she groaned, "I don't feel so good."

Then Chip seemed to get an idea. "Megan," he said, "How much have you learned about alchemy, regarding transmutation of basic metals?"

"This is not the time to make lead into gold, you money mad nutcases!" yelled Matt.

"I'm not talking about turning lead into gold," said Chip, "I'm talking about making iron into silver."

Matt quickly caught on to what Chip's plan was. "Do it. We'll keep him busy," he said.

As Matt ran off to distract the rampaging Ghoulwyrm, Megan said, "How would turning an iron rod to a silver rod help us? His flames would melt it before it even gets close to his flesh."

"We're not going to be transmuting a rod," said Chip, "We'll be transmuting that." He pointed at an iron bell that Xanatos had installed for Unseelie attacks. Megan still looked confused. Then Chip explained, "If the sound of iron hurts a faerie as much as its touch..."

"Then a silver bell will work against undead as good as a silver knife?" asked Megan.

"Hopefully," said Chip, "That's all we got right now."

Matt swooped past in dragon form for a second. "GET ON WITH IT!" he screamed before flying back to the attack again.

Ghoulwyrm in his demon mode proved to be an extremely strong fighter. However, he seemed to have traded his intelligence for his strength. Matt's normal jibes didn't produce any angrier roars than anything. Chloe, Kala (in dragon form), and some of the gargoyles were also aiding by now. "All this is getting us keeping him from going Godzilla on the city. We can't keep this up all night," said Chloe, dodging another fireball.

"I knew Ghoulwyrm thought himself as the ultimate horror monster," said Kala, "But I'd never thought he'd take it this far."

"Well, he certainly wins in the fantasy-based department," said Matt.

Then Ghoulwyrm howled loudly and the flames around his body flared up. Suddenly, ghost-like beings came out of the fire and started swarming the defenders. "Whoa, I did not know he could do that," said Chip.

The ghosts lunged at the males of the group while Ghoulwyrm's bandages shot out to entangle Sata, Angela, Chloe and Kala. Ghoulwyrm sniffed first Kala and Sata, his muzzle grimacing each time. Then he sniffed Angela and his face lit up. He opened his mouth wide to take a large chunk out of her neck.

He was about to tear the gargoyle's throat out when a ringing noise was heard. While it just gave the others a headache, Ghoulwyrm acted like the inside of his head was on fire. The dracopyre roared and dropped his captives. As Matt struggled against the ghosts, he noticed that the ringing sounded just like a big bell, only it had a lighter, more tinkling quality. The ghosts seemed to be wilting along with their master. Matt shoved his claws through his opponent and turned to see the others taking their ghost apart too. Ghoulwyrm staggered around as the sound of the silver bell thundered against his mind. Then he fell down onto the cobblestones, his flames going out and his body reverting to his normal undead form.

Matt, Chloe, and Kala landed, turning back to human form and pulling out their ion blades. "Let's slice him into teeny bits," suggested Matt.

Then Chang stood in front of Ghoulwyrm and said, "Stop! You shall not harm him!"

"Oh yeah?" said Matt, "And who's gonna stop us?"

Chang looked around to see she was practically alone. The Unseelie fled when Ghoulwyrm transformed, confident a beast like that could wipe out the gargoyles. Coldsteel had flown off when the odds were getting too much against him. The Sharkticons had all been destroyed and Monstructor was too damaged to move. The only ones left besides herself were Bananas, who was useless in a fight, Leroy, who had been hogtied and couldn't move, and Omnirus, who was more concerned about licking her wounds than fighting.

Movement at the doorway got everyone's attention. It was Mantichrome. "Hah! I've got all you stupid organics beat and there's nothing you can do," he said, coming out.

Matt gave him an odd look and said, "Uh, did your processor get scrambled in the fight? I think we have your team beat."

"True, but I have this," said Mantichrome as he brandished a vial full of purple liquid.

Matt and the others looked confused but Goliath looked horrified. "How did you get that?"

"What? What's going on?" asked Chloe.

"That's Demona's last attempt to destroy humanity," said Brooklyn, "That vial contains a fast-spreading plague that will wipe out all intelligent life on Earth. She was going to protect gargoyles with the power of the Praying Gargoyle, but we stopped her."

"And you've been keeping it around all this time?" snapped Matt, his face white with fear.

"Well, how would have you disposed of it without unleashing it?" inquired Hudson.

"Shot it into the sun? Burned it to ashes?" suggested Matt, gibbering slightly.

Chloe however said. "Ok...what do you want, Mantichrome?"

Chang smiled and said, "A brilliant strategy, Mantichrome. They won't dare take your bluff."

"Bluff?" said Mantichrome chuckling, "Who says I'm bluffing? I intend to smash this container upon these very stones."

Now everyone, not just the heroes, were looking worried and reaching for various weapons of choice. "Are you crazy? We're on the same team!" said Omnirus before remembering Matt's warning earlier.

"And the mere thought of that is enough to make me want to reboot," said Mantichrome, "Though you would have been useful in helping me achieve my revenge, you were all organics that were to be terminated eventually."

Ghoulwyrm managed a weak, "You traitor...Chang...vaporize...him...after my nap," he said before passing out again.

Mantichrome looked at Ghoulwyrm. "Hmm...he's already dead, so it shouldn't work, an interesting experiment."

"Aren't you forgetting something?" said Chip, "I'm all machine now and so is Coldfire. I'm not sure if Coldstone will be ok, but we'd slag you the minute you'd drop that vial."

"So? You're so damaged I'll blast you to scrap, so you'll be not far behind them for the great recycle bin in the sky," Mantichrome said sneering.

Matt couldn't think of anything else to dissuade Mantichrome so he went for the clichéd, "You'll never get away with this."

"Oh, of course I will. It's easy...watch," Mantichrome said and threw the vial as hard as he could.

None of them could have made to the vial in time to prevent it from smashing. However, Mantichrome didn't count on someone else interfering. From the hole in the wall that Ghoulwyrm smashed in, a black shadow moved swiftly across the ground. As the vial was about to make contact, the shadow opened a fang-filled mouth and swallowed it. NegaMorph emerged from the shadow. Pale cracks were spreading across his body and his eyes weren't as deep red as before. "Dammit," he managed.

"Argh! You stupid blob!" roared Mantichrome, "You ruined my plan! Destroying you would just be a mercifully swift death, so I guess I'll have to settle for the ones you care about most!" With those words, Mantichrome activated the blasters of three of his arms and, before anyone could move, fired at Chloe, Kala, and Megan. Chloe and Kala had draconic reflexes and managed to dodge the blasts but Megan wasn't expecting the blast and it looked like it was all over...till NegaMorph materialized in the path of the blast.

The others could only stare wide-eyed as NegaMorph spread his arms wide and used his body to shield Megan from Mantichrome's attack. His already-weakened regeneration power seemed to have given out and his clothes, as well as a large amount of his skin, were disintegrated. Groaning in pain, NegaMorph fell backwards.

Mantichrome didn't have long to enjoy his minor victory as everyone even Chang's group, opened fire at point blank range into him. For the villains, it was retribution for attempted betrayal...for Matt n co, it was vengeance for NegaMorph. Mantichrome's metal skin crumpled against the assault he took. He barely had any power to stay online, but he was still standing. He seemed to be conscious through sheer anger. If the revenge droid were capable, he'd be frothing at the mouth. "No," he roared, "That stupid blob interfered again! This was supposed to be my victory! My victory! MY VICTORY!"

"Oh shut up," said Matt and sent a plasma orb through Mantichrome's neck, causing the machine to go into stasis lock.

Megan ran over to NegaMorph's side. His skin looked like it was made of dried mud and was a pale grey in color. His eyes were a very pale pink. "Are you...okay...Megan?" wheezed NegaMorph.

"Yes, thanks to you," said Megan, tears in her eyes, "I can't believe you would do that for me, for all of us."

Matt and the others just stayed silent. Matt and Chloe glaring in warning to Chang's group to keep their mouths shut or join Mantichrome.

"Kind of...ironic," said NegaMorph before letting out a bout of wretched coughing, "I spent my previous life spreading around a mutagenic virus. Now I just spent this life saving the world from a deadly virus."

Matt finally spoke up, "You did good...real good."

"An un-sarcastic compliment from you?" said NegaMorph, "I really must be losing it."

"Uncle, please, don't die..." cried Megan, the tears rolling down her face.

NegaMorph managed to put one hand on her arm and said, "At least...I found...something...to live for...this time..." With a final sigh, NegaMorph's body crumbled into dust.

"Whoa, I'd never have seen him as the self-sacrificing type-" started Omnrius.

"Just get out of here, the lot of you," interrupted Matt, "You've overstayed your welcome."

Chang snarled and raised her staff to blast the group when surprisingly Ghouwyrm gripped her staff and pulled it down. "No, we're done here. Leave them to tend to their lost."

"But sir, they are our enemy," said Chang.

"We do not have enough to strength to fight any longer," said Ghoulwyrm, "and, whether it was intentional or by extension, one of them saved all our lives. Besides, we have a traitor that needs to be punished." A metal creaking behind made them turned to see that the Monstercons have separated into their individual robot forms. Ghouwyrm glared at them. "Bring Mantichrome with us. We need to explain his...mistake to him," he said in a voice that promised pain if disobeyed. The four robots, without Mantichrome's leadership, cowed under Ghoulwyrm's glare. They gingerly gathered Mantichrome up and carried him over. Ghoulwyrm turned his glare towards the castle's defender. "We will allow you a reprieve," he said, "But the next time we clash, don't expect another one."

"We'd have it no other way, zombie features," said Matt.

Chang lifted her staff high and a large magical portal opened up from underneath Ghoulwyrm's group. The company of villains disappeared in a flash.

The group walked up to Megan. "I'm...I'm sorry, Megan," said Matt. He knew how it felt to lose a friend, remembering the people he'd lost over the years...Medic Anderson on Sy-Yong...Endra...Sonya...his squadron at...well...

"He was like a father to me," said Megan, "Better than my own father. He may have disciplined me, but he was willing to risk everything for me."

Chloe put her arm around Megan. "It's ok. He's in a better place. I'm sure of it."

"Aye, twas a true hero's death," said Hudson.

"He shall be remembered here with great honor," said Goliath.

"With a proper warrior's funeral too," said Brooklyn.

Just then, the door opened and Xanatos and Fox walked out, Fox carrying Alex. "I'm sorry we couldn't help," said Xanatos, "Without our weapons, we're useless against Unseelie and..." He noticed the somber looks on all their faces. "Someone died in the fight, didn't they?" he said.

Matt nodded sadly. "NegaMorph. Somehow Mantichrome got his hands on some kind of...virus...NegaMorph absorbed it," he said.

Xanatos looked guilty, "Yes, that plague, I should have destroyed it a long time ago. Why didn't I throw into a volcano or something? I'm so sorry."

Matt just sighed. "Too late now," he said.

"Pardon the briefness of my grief," said Chip, "But I think we should do something about Draco before Mantichrome's poison does too much damage."

Matt nodded. "Ok, do you know what the cure is? I've technically only met him twice," he said.

"Yes," said Chip, "The antidote's are all plant-based and should be easy to obtain, except for the pollen of _rafflesia_."

"What be all this gloom and doom?" said Puck as he twirled though the air, "The battle is won. The enemies have all been turned away. And the rain's stopped too."

Chloe turned and gave Puck one of her famous death ray grade glares. "NegaMorph's dead, you blond nutcase," she said.

"Ah, yes," said Puck, "The valiant black knight has fallen. But with a little faith from friends, the Puck will make amends. Alex, it's time for another magic lesson."

Xanatos looked over at Puck before back at the group. "I don't think this is the time, Puck."

"Trust me," said Puck, "Now Alex, how about I show you a special way to pull something out of a hat?" From behind his back, Puck pulled out a black fedora. He grabbed a handful of NegaMorph's dust and dropped it into the hat. "Now watch carefully," instructed Puck, "Give this hat restoration!" Then he reached into the hat and started pulling out something long and black.

He kept pulling until he had NegaMorph hanging by his antenna.

"Ta-da!" said NegaMorph.

Everyone stared until Matt walked up to NegaMorph and said, "How do we know he's the real..." he never finished as at that point he poked NegaMorph on the nose. NegaMorph promptly hit Matt with a triple left hook that sent Matt flying into a wall. "It's him alright," groaned Matt.

Megan ran over to her adopted uncle and hugged him tightly. "You're ok," she said happily.

"You don't think I'd croak that easily, did you?" said NegaMorph as he hugged her back.

Chloe however was confused. "We all saw you turn into dust. This is a bit much, even for your regenerative abilities," she said.

"You thought you saw me turn to dust," said NegaMorph, "I've been in that hat all along. When Puck found out that Mantichrome stole that vial, he knew he was going to release it. Fortunately, I managed to sneak away from Ghoulwyrm for a bit. So we hatched this little scheme to contain the virus."

"By putting his essence in the hat," said Puck, "I was able to use a spell to bring back his body."

Matt glared at NegaMorph. "So...this was all a trick then. Would it have hurt to maybe let us in on this little trick?" he said.

"Well, we only came up with this a few minutes ago," said NegaMorph, "I didn't really have enough time to explain it before I had to swallow that plague."

Matt looked ready to return the punch NegaMorph gave him. "You really upset Megan. You know that. But I understand why you couldn't say anything. You did good."

"Yeah, I think I did," said NegaMorph as he reformed his coat and hat, "But don't think I'm going to be a total saint from now on. My personality hasn't altered that much."

Matt smiled, said, "We wouldn't have it any other way," and patted NegaMorph on the back, prompting NegaMorph to grab the offending hand, and throw Matt over his shoulder.

"Sorry, that habit's not going to go away that easily," said NegaMorph.

"That's fine..." croaked Matt.

--

Cleaning up after the battle was pretty easy. Money problems were virtually nonexistent, seeing as how Xanatos was this world's Bill Gates. Repairmen were able to take care of the damages caused during the battle. The repairmen had become so used to fixing up the castle that they don't bother questioning as to how it got damaged in the first place. Not to mention the very healthy paychecks they get made them less inclined to complain.

As for injuries, the clan and crew were relatively lucky. NegaMorph's injuries had been the worse and those were easily attended to. The gargoyles had been hurt during the fight, but it was nothing a day's sleep couldn't cure. Chip, Coldstone, and Coldfire had to go through repairs, but they were hardly crippled from their fights. As for Matt, Chloe, Kala, and Megan, they required a little bedrest to recover. Of course, Matt and Kala may have taken that a little too literally.

Matt and Kala were both still a little steamed from the battle, particularly at Mantichrome's attempt of wiping out sentient organic life on the planet. So they decided to let out their inner aggression in the least violent way they knew.

Matt rolled back to his side of the bed and let out a sigh of relief. "Boy, was that a thrill ride!"

Kala gave a moan of content and said, "NegaMorph and Loki were right. Angry sex is amazing."

"I guess so," said Matt, "By the way, we never let them hear about this."

"Well, we're not really planning on telling anyone about this anyways," said Kala, "You heard what Chloe says."

"Right," said Matt, "Office romance has a limit point. Not to mention we've got way too many enemies right now to feel comfortable."

"Speaking of limit points," said Kala, "You did remember to take precautions, right?"

"Definitely," said Matt, "As if I wanted the NSC to come down on me for 'sexual misconduct'. Besides, I don't think either of us are ready to be a parent yet."

"I have to agree with you there," said Kala.

Suddenly, Matt's communicator started ringing. Matt looked around for it until Kala said, "It's on the bedstand, dear."

"Right, thanks," said Matt. He picked up the wrist-comp and clicked it on. Morph's voice came out of it, "Guys, I've got good news."

"Did you find your guys yet?" asked Matt. Morph had been trying to contact his Red Kryptonite suppliers and was using a communications lab to try and reach them, hence his absence during the battle.

"Sure did, they'll be at the Bladestorm in three days. They'll have the resequencer ready to change everyone back."

Matt was having mixed feelings at the moment. One part of him was glad that he'd have his friends back to normal. And yet another part wouldn't mind if Kala stayed the way she was. But like they both said, now wasn't the time. "That's good to hear," said Matt, "Just a few minor things to wrap up here and we'll meet up with you and your…people."

Morph signed off and Matt sighed to himself. "So I'll be an experiment again soon?" asked Kala, a small amount of dread in her voice.

"Yes," said Matt, "But it's probably for the best. And maybe we'll be able to work something out someday so we could be together again."

"I hope so," said Kala.

Then Matt's comm rang again. "Oh, what now?" he muttered.

He answered it and an annoyingly obnoxious voice came out. "Lynch, I've got a new assignment for you."

Matt groaned and said, "What is it this time, Neilsson?"

"Our Empire buddies have a base on a particular planet that you know plenty about," said Neilsson.

Matt looked confused and said, "Uh, I'm not certain which planet you're talking about."

"Oh, I think you do," said Neilsson, "Read it and weep."

Then coordinates appeared on the screen of Matt's wristcomp. Matt read them and groaned, "Oh no, not there!"

--

Meanwhile, on Omnirus's ship, someone else was suffering more than Matt. Mantichrome had been only slightly repaired. His limbs, neck, tail, and torso were covered with dents, cracks, and scorch marks. He had only been repaired enough so that he'd be able to stay conscious through his 'admonishment'. His limbs were chained to keep him from going anywhere in the middle of an empty room. His weapon systems had all been disabled. His 'colleagues' were standing at the edges of the room and were taking potshots at him.

"Look, I've already told you- OW!" said Mantichrome as Leroy shot him with his plasma blaster, "It was nothing personal- OW!" He winced as Chang hit him with a fireball. "It's just my programming-OW!" Bananas B had just thrown a large rock at his head.

"That's funny," said Omnirus, "I'm pretty sure your programming has a 'no exceptions' rule in it."

"Well…I possibly may have grieved you passing a little bit…" said Mantichrome, only for him to get cut off when Omnirus used every projectile power she had on him. He screamed in pain as his body was blasted with fiery crystals, green lightning, laser beams, sonic howls, and exploding lugies.

"Enough, Omnirus," said Ghoulwyrm, "We need him conscious so he will be able to fully comprehend his punishment."

Ghoulwyrm leered down at Mantichrome's extremely battered body. The wounded vengeance droid looked at Ghoulwyrm and squeaked, "Please…mercy…"

"You who are without mercy now plead for it?" asked Ghoulwyrm, sounding amused, "I thought you were made of sterner stuff." Then he lifted his hand and said something in an ancient language. Purple energy came out of his hand and hit Mantichrome, who roared with pain. "You shall be killed today, but I'm not letting you off free. From now on, if anything you do or your minions do that causes the death of either myself or my teammates, directly or indirectly, you shall all die on the spot." Mantichrome slumped over, barely conscious at all.

Then Ghoulwyrm turned his attention to the rest of them. "It has come apparent to me that we require more forces on our side. If we had more loyal allies on our side, we would have won that battle. Therefore, I'm giving us all an assignment. Seek out those who would follow us and recruit them for our cause. With enough firepower on our side, Matthew Lynch and those who ally with him shall be destroyed." Then he motioned with one hand towards Mantichrome, "Take that traitorous piece of garbage to the repair room. He has a lot of work to do."

* * *

There's the last chapter. It certainly was an action-filled battle. It's a shame we weren't able to focus on the individual fights more. However, I think the plot twists more than composated. We now know just how much NegaMorph has turned around and exactly how low Mantichrome's willing to sink. This will be the last Gargoyles fic for a while, but there's plenty of stories coming. The direct sequel to this by my co-author, largefish8. It's called CPS Chronicles: Forgotten Blood. The next Voyagers Saga story won't be until that one's finished, I think. Anyways, I'm planning on doing a parody story based on Kioko the Pirate's Tejina Chronicles and ngrey651's Altered Fates. Of course, that story may take a while for it to upload, but hopefully the first chapter will be ready soon. In the meantime, go read largefish 8's Forgotten Blood and review there. Review here too please.


End file.
